Jean-Baptiste CHARCOT – Set of two autographed signed cards.

Jean-Baptiste CHARCOT (1867.1936)

Set of two autographed cards signed to Philippe and Hélène Berthelot.

Four oblong 12mo pages on letterhead of his ship, the Pourquoi-Pas .

Cherbourg, July 10, 1926 and St. Servan-sur-Mer, November 23, 1934.

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I. Cherbourg aboard the Pourquoi-Pas . July 10, 1926. To Philippe Berthelot.

“ Thank you, my dear friend, for this good news you have given me about Mikkelsen [the explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen]. I am leaving on the 15th to pick him up in the Faroe Islands and take him on a short tour of the east coast of Greenland. I will inform him of this distinction, with which he will be very honored, and I will organize a small celebration in Thorshavn [sic, for Tórshavn, the capital of the Faroe Islands], in agreement with the governor in the ‘Pourquoi pas?’. Please convey my regards to Madame Berthelot and, once again, with my thanks, accept my best regards. Charcot”

II. St. Servan-sur-Mer, November 23, 1934. His condolences to Hélène Berthelot following the death of her husband Philippe. 

"Madam, it is with profound sorrow that I learned of the cruel loss that has befallen you . This loss is irreparable for you, for France, and for the friends of your dear husband ; allow me to share your great grief and to tell you, quite simply but most sincerely, that my wife and I sympathize with you from the bottom of our hearts. Please accept, Madam, the assurance of my deepest and most heartfelt sympathy. Charcot"

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The first Frenchman to reach the east coast of Greenland, Charcot became fascinated by the country. Elected to the Academy of Sciences in 1926, he was entrusted with a mission to Jameson Land. Thanks to the presence aboard the Pourquoi-Pas? of the great Danish explorer Mikkelsen, who had embarked from the Faroe Islands, Charcot sailed past Jan Mayen and then explored the east coast of Greenland, bringing back, among other things, an abundant collection of fossils and numerous samples of insects and flora.

During the summer of 1934, Charcot established the ethnographic mission in Greenland, led by Paul-Émile Victor, who stayed for a year in Angmagssalik to live among an Inuit population. In September of that same year, he co-founded, with the National Museum of Natural History, the Aquarium and Museum of the Sea in Dinard.