Educational Resources, Research Dossiers & Registered Statutes
In service to teachers, students, academic researchers, and living history practitioners, we provide free open-access downloads of our archival transcriptions, pedagogical guides, and institutional statutes.
Official Registered Statutes (Association Loi 1901)
Association Groupe Maison Civile et Militaire Murat is constituted in accordance with the French Law of July 1, 1901, and the Decree of August 16, 1901. Its official incorporation is registered with the Prefecture of Eure-et-Loir under RNA record W281009580 and SIREN identification 881559082. The headquarters are permanently established at 16 Rue de Chartres, 28120 Bailleau-le-Pin, France.
Below is an official transcription of the fundamental articles governing our non-profit association:
Article 2: Statutory Non-Profit & Non-Commercial Purpose
"The association has for its sole and exclusive object to preserve, study, and bring to life the memory of the First French Empire, with particular focus on the civil household and military staff of Joachim and Caroline Murat. The association fulfills this mission through authentic living history demonstrations, public educational lectures, artisanal workshops, school visits, and the publication of free historical research. The association is entirely non-commercial, prohibits any commercial sales of products or services, charges no admission fees for its public educational exhibitions, and operates strictly in the public interest."
Article 4: Mandatory Fee Reinvestment Covenant
"All membership fees and dues are fully reinvested in the association's public interest missions. No member, officer, or board director may receive any direct or indirect dividend, profit, salary, or financial compensation from association revenues or assets."
Article 14: Asset Liquidation & Devolution
"In the event of voluntary, statutory, or judicial dissolution of the association, the General Assembly shall appoint one or more liquidators. After settling all outstanding administrative liabilities, the remaining net assets shall be transferred entirely to a designated non-profit cultural organization or local municipality pursuing kindred historical preservation objectives. Under no circumstances may any asset be distributed among members."
Educational Whitepapers & Historical Research Dossiers
Our Historical Research Commission conducts continuous investigations into nineteenth-century archival records, preserving primary source texts and translating complex historical data into accessible educational whitepapers. All materials listed below are distributed under an open educational license (Creative Commons BY-NC-ND) and may be downloaded and utilized freely by classrooms, homeschoolers, and historical researchers.
Whitepaper 01: The 1808 Cavalry Regimental Regulations and Material Culture
This comprehensive 48-page research monograph investigates the practical logistics of First Empire light cavalry squadrons. Drawing from records held at the Service Historique de la Défense (SHD) at Château de Vincennes, the whitepaper details:
- The exact specifications of Hungarian saddle trees, stirrup metallurgy, and curb-bit mechanics.
- Chemical analysis of vegetable textile dyes (madder root, woad, indigo) used for cavalry pelisses and breeches.
- Daily caloric and hydration requirements for cavalry horses on long-distance European marches.
Whitepaper 02: Caroline Murat and Neoclassical Civil Administration
A groundbreaking study exploring the cultural, political, and archaeological contributions of Caroline Bonaparte Murat during her tenure as Grand Duchess of Berg and Queen of Naples. Key topics include:
- Her direct sponsorship of the archaeological clearing of the Forum and Villa of Diomedes at Pompeii.
- The establishment of secondary educational seminaries for young women in the Kingdom of Naples.
- The diplomatic protocol, correspondence networks, and artistic salon culture of the early nineteenth century.
Whitepaper 03: Field Medicine, Surgery, and Triage in the Grande Armée
Documenting the humanitarian innovations of Surgeon-in-Chief Dominique Jean Larrey. Examines the invention of "flying ambulances" (ambulances volantes), rapid battlefield amputation techniques, sanitary encampment hygiene, and the ethical mandate to treat wounded soldiers regardless of their national allegiance.
Curriculum-Aligned Pedagogical Kits for Schools
In addition to specialized research monographs, we provide turnkey pedagogical kits designed specifically for primary (Cycle 3) and secondary school educators:
| Resource Title | Target Audience | Format | Pedagogical Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| "A Soldier's Knapsack" Tactile Kit | Primary Schools (CE2–CM2) | PDF Guide & Artifact List | Examines daily life, nutrition, hygiene, and postal letters of 19th-century conscripts. |
| "The Civil Code & Modern Law" Dossier | Collèges & Lycées | Discussion Guide & Facsimiles | Analyzes the origins of civil registry, property rights, and the metric system in France. |
| "Historical Leathercraft for Beginners" | Youth Clubs & Families | Illustrated Craft Manual | Step-by-step instructions for two-needle saddle stitching and making period coin pouches. |
| "Napoleonic Cartography & Surveying" | Secondary Geography & Math | Map Exercises & Worksheets | Explores triangulation, Cassini maps, and early military cartographic drawing techniques. |
Open Educational Commons Covenant
"All whitepapers, pedagogical kits, and archival transcriptions published by Association Groupe Maison Civile et Militaire Murat are completely free of charge. We do not require paid subscriptions or commercial paywalls. Our goal is the unrestricted transmission of historical knowledge."
Archival Transcription Project & Regional Partnerships
Our association actively collaborates with departmental archives in Chartres (Archives Départementales d'Eure-et-Loir) and municipal repositories throughout central France to transcribe nineteenth-century documents related to local conscripts, municipal requisition orders, and community celebrations of the First Empire. These transcriptions are made available to genealogists and local historians seeking to trace ancestral connections to the period.
If you are an educator, student, or researcher requiring high-resolution archival scans or specialized research assistance, please submit an inquiry to our historical documentation secretariat.
Digital Archiving Protocols & Paleographic Transcriptions
Preserving fragile nineteenth-century manuscripts requires meticulous digital conservation standards. In collaboration with volunteer paleographers, our association applies double-entry transcription methodologies to decipher cursive administrative handwriting, field dispatches, and private family correspondences from the 1800–1815 era. Each transcribed document is annotated with historical context, explaining obsolete monetary units (such as francs germinal and livres tournois), archaic military ranks, and geographical place-name alterations.
All high-resolution scans and searchable text facsimiles are stored in open PDF and TEI-XML formats, guaranteeing long-term digital preservation and compatibility with universal screen readers. We partner with regional universities to allow undergraduate history students to utilize our digitized corpus for coursework and research dissertations on rural conscription patterns in the Beauce and Perche regions.
Annotated Bibliography & Recommended Historical Reading
To assist educators and enthusiasts in navigating the vast literature surrounding the First Empire, our research committee curates an essential annotated bibliography of peer-reviewed historical scholarship and reliable contemporary memoirs:
- Memoirs and Correspondences: Critical editions of Joachim Murat’s battlefield letters edited by Paul Le Brethon, alongside the personal memoirs of General Jean-Roch Coignet and Baron de Marbot, illustrating the contrasting perspectives of supreme cavalry command and common infantry foot soldiers.
- Administrative & Legal History: Foundational works by Jean Tulard and Thierry Lentz analyzing the domestic institutional architecture, prefectural authority, and penal reforms of the Consulate and Empire.
- Equine & Veterinary Studies: Historical treatises detailing the imperial veterinary schools of Alfort and Lyon, showing how early nineteenth-century veterinarians combated glanders and developed modern equestrian anatomy.
- Women in the Empire: Scholarly monographs on Caroline Bonaparte Murat and Madame de Staël, demonstrating the diverse cultural and political roles played by women during the Napoleonic era.
Open Access Licensing & Non-Commercial Educational Reuse
All educational materials, teaching sheets, diagrams, and historical monographs hosted within this repository are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This licensing structure permits schools, universities, non-profit museums, and independent researchers to copy, distribute, and adapt our materials freely, provided that:
- Appropriate attribution is given to Association Groupe Maison Civile et Militaire Murat and the original archival sources.
- The materials are not utilized for any commercial or monetized purpose whatsoever.
- Any derivative works are distributed under the same open, non-commercial license.