As a student of military history I have long been interested in Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), so I attended the press preview of the Napoleon Exhibition at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia last month.

The exhibit is hailed as one of the largest private collections of Napoleon memorabilia in the world. The collector, Pierre-Jean Chalencon, said he has been interested in Napoleon for more than 30 years. He said he saw him as the first modern European leader – a truly self-made man who rose to the seat of power without the aid of the royal lineage that had been required in France and across the continent for hundreds of years.

“The pieces in the exhibition have been selected not only for their great beauty and rarity, but also because they allow us to see into the heart of this extraordinary man,” Chalencon explained. “While a giant of history in the model of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar and Charlemagne, he was also very human. He had great loves and was driven by his dreams for a better world, but was, at times, blind to the betrayal of others and the victim of his flawed vision.”

The exhibition is organized into twelve sections that trace Napoleon’s life: The Rise to Power, The Egyptian Campaign, First Consul, The Coronation, The Emperor’s Family, The Imperial Court, Art and the Emperor, Napoleon at War, The Road to Defeat, The Final Exile, Death of the Emperor, and Legend.

The exhibit offers some of the most famous paintings of Napoleon by noted artists of the time, as well as busts of him. Also on display are the sword that proclaimed Napoleon Emperor, his camp bed from the battle of Wagram and his personal map of the French Empire at its zenith in 1812.

The exhibition also offers one Napoleon’s signature hats. He wore this summer hat during the battle at Essling in 1809. Napoleon wore his hat “broadside on,” the sides parallel with his shoulders, so in battle he could be distinguished from his officers, who wore their hats “fore-and-aft.”

“Napoleon is one of history’s most iconic political figures; this exhibition sheds light on his fascinating life,” said National Constitution Center President and Chief Executive Officer, Linda E. Johnson. “It also conveys how the destinies of France and America intersected from the time of the American Revolution to Napoleon’s reign.”

Napoleon is considered by many historians to be one of the greatest military commanders in history, yet he remains controversial due to his ruthless sacrifice of hundred of thousands of soldiers in bloody battles. Despite his flaws, or perhaps because of them, Napoleon remains one of history’s fascinating characters.

The Napoleon exhibit will run in Philadelphia through September 7, 2009. The Constitution Center is the sixth stop on the Napoleon exhibition’s North American Tour. The tour continues on to the Muzeo in Anaheim, California and then to the Missouri History Museum in St. Louis, Missouri.

Paul Davis writes about crime and espionage for GreatHistory.com. His web site is http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/site/. He can be reached at daviswrite@aol.com.

About the Author: Paul Davis has been a student of crime and espionage since he was a 12-year-old aspiring writer growing up in South Philadelphia. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy when he was 17 in 1970 and served on an aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. He performed security work as a young sailor and later as a Defense Department civilian employee. As a writer he has covered crime, espionage, terrorism and the military for newspapers, magazines and Internet publications.

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