An extensive collection of diaries, photographs, blueprints, letters and documents - and even a painted sample sheet of Longwood’s famous wallpaper from the 1920s - which together record the rescue and rebuilding of Napoleon Bonaparte’s dilapidated home on St Helena. Longwood housed Napoleon from December 1815 to his death in 1821, was bought by the French government but fell into disastrous disrepair by the time Basil Lennox Hart took charge of its renovation in the 1950s. His - this - archive includes his St Helena personal diaries, blueprints and plans for the building works and a large number of his photographs of Longwood before, during and after its semi-demolition and rebuilding. Informing this process is a series of otherwise unknown copy photographs from the 1850s which were given to Hart by a grandson of his predecessor as Commissioner on St Helena, John Charles Mellis. These, otherwise unknown images, add significantly to the visual record of Longwood.
The decision to rebuild Napoleon’s last home was prompted by the visit of King George VI to the island; he summoned the French Ambassador on his return to London, prompting a joint effort by Britain, which controlled St. Helena as a Crown Colony, and France, which had owned the French Domains of Saint-Helena since 1858, to restore the buildings. The archive includes reports on the disastrous state of Longwood House with further plans made for reconditioning the residence of the French Consul and the area around Napoleon’s Tomb.
Hart’s pocket diaries from 1952, 1953 and early 1954, c10,000 words, record his arrival in St Helena in February 1952, and the process of surveying, producing plans, hiring workmen and the minutiae of the reconstructive works: ‘Longwood, started stripping Old House Roof (Library & dining R.)’ – ‘Longwood all day, men cutting concrete curb away around rafters Library & Dining R. & concrete gutters, & East Dormer down, had consul up about concrete trusses’ – ‘Longwood pulling down N. wall Library completed & new concrete foundations to be put in.’ Hart records delays to wages, endless rain and the liberal application of Rentokil to combat termites.
Most revealing are Hart’s photographs of the process which have been mounted on sheets as if for display purposes; alongside these is a small group of photographs from a century earlier which were submitted to him by John Charles Mellis’s grandson. One final, evocative item, is a painted replica of the wallpaper inside Longwood, reproduced by a French official in the 1920s and submitted to Hart to help inform his restoration project. Are we looking at an image of the wallpaper that killed Napoleon?
Alongside these items are copies of monthly accounts with tabulated material costs, rates of pay, and day-to-day expenses towards final reopening in 1955.
The archive comprises:
1. Application and Acceptance Letters (1951): Correspondence between Hart and the Crown Agents for the Colonies.
2. Collection of 10 Government Publications (1951- 1952): Documents on passport application, inoculation, insurance, and living conditions in St. Helena.
3 Diaries (1952-1954): Written on an almost daily basis, documenting his work on the project, detailing the progress, incidents, visits, and problems as the work progressed.
4 Employment Agreement (1952): Copy of the employment agreement between Hart and the ViceConsul of St. Helena.
5 Reconstruction Report (April 1952): Report on the work necessary for the reconstruction of Longwood ‘Old House.
6 Letter from H.J. Melliss (1952): Enclosing copies of photographs taken of Longwood House in 1858, when his father, as consul, handed the site over to the French government.
7 RSVP Group (1952-1954): A collection of RSVP responses from various islanders, tickets to events, press cuttings, and releases.
8 Brochures and Documents on Termites (1953 and later)): A collection of brochures and advice documents on killing and preventing termites.
9 7 Extensive Typed Copies (1954): Addressed to Mons G.E. Peugent, the French Vice-Consul at St. Helena, detailing the progress of ongoing work, payments for materials, subsistence costs, weekly employment of local workmen, together with their names and countersignatures on receipt of their wages. 10 2 Blueprints (1952): Blueprints of the ‘French Domain, St. Helena Island, New House adjacent to Emperor Napoleon’s tomb
11. Sample Sheet of Wallpaper: Reproduced from fragments of the original by the French Government in the 1920s.
12. Collection of 11 Income Tax Documents (1952-1954): Related to St. Helena and the United Kingdom. 13. 56 Postcard-Size Photographs (1952-1954): Mounted on album sheets, depicting various views of the work being carried out on the site, captioned in French. These were possibly produced for official and important visitors to the site to help explain the ongoing work.
