The Military Costume Collection and Ethnographic Gallery at the Musée de l'Armée
At the end of the 19th century, the Musée d'Artillerie (Artillery Museum), forerunner of today's Musée de l'Armée, embarked on two ambitious educational projects; the Military Costume Collection, established in 1876, consists of a series of 75 life-size models showing the costumes, armour and weapons used in Europe from prehistoric times through to the 18th century. These dramatic figures, including Greek warriors, medieval knights and soldiers of the Wars of Religion, help place the museum's artefacts in context and make sense of what we know about the past in terms of military history.
In 1877, a further 77 models were added to the collection, dedicated to the costumes, adornments and equipment of warriors from the four continents of the world beyond Europe. The objective of this anthropological gallery was to display "authentic" exotic warriors, equipped as they would have been in around 1810.
Both sets of exhibits proved very popular but were not destined to remain long at the museum. In 1917, the models from the Ethnography Gallery were removed to make way for the development of the new Musée de l'Armée.
The thirty figures that survive from the original Military Costume Collection were on public display until 1980 and are now preserved in the museum's store rooms. They still offer an astonishingly vivid source of inspiration, despite the historical inaccuracies that some of them exhibit.
