Many of the captions are edited or copied from the museum labels used for the exhibition. This essays accompanies the post: Through the Looking Glass of Parisians 1926-1936 . What makes this a fabulous, historic exhibition are the details that accompany the films, photos, art, scale models, etc. Without the censuses the objects would have little meaning.
Contents of this photo essay:
- Exhibition brochure
- Images of exhibition
- Birth rates: Between support and repression
- “We need more births” – Pyrex and Medals
- City of Love and Fun for Singles
- Some of the Fun
- Matchmaking Magazines
- Women at Work
- The “Bottin Mondain” – Social Register
- Film Documentaries
- First Female Service Agents
- Men at Work
- Industrial Map of Paris Region
- Unemployment and poverty 1930s
- Bubonic plague and rats
- Illustrated Magazines: A Booming Mass Media
- Police/Detective and Glamour magazines
- Mass media and culture
- Murder and a Parisian Interior
- Inside the Apartment
Read the handout brochure below for a preview of your visit. Spend about two hours. The numerous films and documentaries are worth watching. The description labels are full of extra details. We usually think of this period between the two wars as one big party and Americans abroad. This exhibit is about the people who lived and worked behind the landscape of Paris.
Lucien March invented the “classifier-counter-printer” for counting and categorising of census forms. It was used between 1901 and 1940.
A classifier-counter employee reading and typing into the categories. 60 keys were connected to 60 counters. The keys were grouped into categories by civil status, nationality, place of birth, etc.
Native Parisians and foreign-born Parisians. Portraits between 1920 and 1937.
Birth rates: Between support and repression
In this Pyramides des âges/Age pyramid, notice the drop in the birth rates for the Prussian invasion and the Commune de Paris conflict and World War I.
From the end of World War I, the declining birth rates led some people to fear “depopulation”. The National Alliance for Population Growth stated, “We need to have more births”.
“We need more births”
From the end of World War I, the declining birth rates led some people to fear “depopulation”. The National Alliance for Population Growth stated, “We need to have more births”. French policies promoted natality and supported large families (legitimate children only) with financial awards. Abortion penalties were tightened and propoganda for contraception was banned. The penalties regarding abortion were downgraded from felony to misdemeanor in 1923 making it easier to convict.
Babies need a Pyrex bottle; Parents need Medals
Started in 1922 to increase the Parisian population, medals (gold, silver and bronze) were awareded to parents with at least nine children in their care. The Guillemin family, Jules, 42 and a foundry worker; Juliette (38) had no “gainful” employment, lived with Juliette’s mother, Berthe Templeux, in the 14th arrondissement. The family was the winner of the Cognacq-Jay Prize for most deserving family December 6, 1936.
In 1922 Clovis and Léon Régent, glass blowers who pioneered the Pyrex brand in France, The glass could wistand sudden changes from hot to cold: boiling milk could be poured into the baby bottle and the bottle immersed into cold water (hygiene and sterilisation). The nipple was made of rubber and the larger neck allowed people to clean the bottle thoroughly. Until then baby bottles had been breeding grounds for bacteria and were a cause of child mortality.
French Family medals of honor (gold, silver and bronze) were given to large families from 1920 until 2013.
Images:
1928 “To French mothers: request the support from the national law encouraging large families” Decree: for mothers with at least five legitimate and living children, they may request a French Family Medal (la Médaille de la Famille Française) for free as well as a diploma.
1928 “Breakdown of the populations between the various age groups” Decree for fathers (at least 4 children under 13), widows (at least 3 children under 13), widowers (at least 2 children under 13), and you pay no income tax, you can receive 360 francs per child per year.
City of Love and Fun for Singles
Paris gained its reputation as the “City of Love” due to the high number of single people; twenty-nine percent of the population. This was a result of World War I. These were women looking for work and widows. Each November 25, was a race for the “Catherinettes”. Images of Catherinettes celebrating was also part of the Petit Palais exhibition House of Worth
Two Parisian sisters (age 28 and 24 in 1931) were shop assistants for the master couturier Paul Poiret. Odette, the oldest, celebrated the “Catherinettes” with other single women (notably fashion house workers). They prayed to Saint Catherine to find a husband. The family lived at 15 Rue Hèlène (Batignolles 17th arr.). Their father was a pattern cutter for women’s clothing; his wife was not employed.
The Race of the Catherinettes November 28, 1926 poster. Odette Gastaldi wore the dress and hat during the November 25, 1928 race. She was a shop assistant for Paul Poiret.
Some of the Fun
No matter who you were, the censuses provided names, addresses, professions (choose what you fits you at the time), with whom one was living, when and where they were born and when and where they died.
Born in Tubersent, in northern France, Émilie Carlu would eventually marry the painter Dubuffet in 1937. Man Ray photographed her as early as 1923, often alongside his other muse, Kiki de Montparnasse, born Alice Prin.
La Môme Bijou (The Jewelry Kid), was a figure from Montmartre famous for wearing a lot of jewelry. The photographer Brassaï dedicated a chapter to her in his book The Secret Paris of the 30s.
Violette Morris, known as Fat Claude and her friend, at the Monocle, a lesbian cabaret in Montparnasse, 60 Bouleveard Edgar-Quinet
Matchmaking Magazines
Midinette was a weekly illustrated woman’s magazine. The accompanying page above contains letters to the editor (1924).
Following World War I fertility rates dropped. Magazines from 1934 and advertisements were abundant for matchmaking. Women wanted to work as they had during the war, men wanted them to be housewives. Gender stereotypes were deep-seated. The ideas were to complement love (the ideal) with socio-professional situations. (Note: France lost 16% of its men in combat; 1.3 million during the four years of war.)
“Jean-Claude, la revue de l’homme moderne” (1938) was a magazine for men; the accompanying article above is entitled “Searching for paternity is necessary: is it possible?
Women at Work
“Previously considered a male occupation, secretarial work became increasingly feminie, becoming on eof the most popular jobs for women. Seamstresses were employed in nearly 200 fashion houses in 1929 compared to 20 in 1914.
The photographer Germaine Krull begain working with the maggazine VU early on after it was created in 1928. She excelled in the emerging genre of photojournalism as demonstrated by her work Parisian female workers. In this series of six articles written by the essayist Emmanuel Berl, Germaine Krull examined the working conditions and habits of women employed as pearl farmers, florists, feather workers, corset makers, telephone operators, models, shop assistants, hairdressers and typists.
On May 30, 1927 the Professional Association of French typists held championship. Odette Piau, Swiss citizen and stenographer for the League of Nationals won the European championship for typing at a speed of 98 words per minute for one hour. The text was unknown.
The Parisian censuses recorded 22,900 typists in 1926 and 24,000 in 1936. Telephone operators numbered 1,200 in 1926 and 1,500 in 1936.
Inside the workshop of milliner Jeanne Le Monnier below.
“Dressmaking and fashion” series (1931) – Maison Judith Barbier: Flowers for a bridal crown above.
The concierge was a popular figure in Paris during the interwar years. The salary was low for the 52,000 women who relied on tips and holiday bonuses.
Geography of domestic service in Paris 1926 to the left.
Domestic workers (85% women) were increasingly living in their own households rather than residing with their employers.
The “Bottin Mondain” – Social Register
The first edition of the “Bottin mondain” from 1903 included 12,000 families almost all of whom were from Paris. This social prestige directory, for the nobility and bourgeoisie, absorbed its competitors, the Annuaire des châteaux et des départments in 1937 and the Tout-Paris in 1939. With a circulation ranging from 15,000 to 20,000 copies, it covered a population of around 180,000 people. Single people were rarely mentioned. Families predominated, and a net increase in the number of children per woman was recorded, like elsewhere in France, between 1934 and 1935. The average number of children per woman was 4.5 in 1936.
Film Documentaries
Film documentaries grew in popularity during the 1920s. Western Paris was the most prestigious part of the capital. A 45-minute 1926 documentary (at the exhibition) “Voici Paris” takes you on a stroll with Parisians going about their daily lives. Below are extraits “Voici Paris” and from “A day in the life of a Parisian seamstress” (1927).
First Female Service Agents
“The first female agents, a feminist milestone, start their service”–Actualitiés 1935. Simone Monvert and Berthe Rolland. Simone’s journal from April 1935 to December 1938 is part of the exhibition.
Their duties included supervising school gates, monitoring areas around girls’ high schools and residences, protecting children and preventing child abuse, or repressing prostitution.
Female service agents were the subject of a 1936 film “The Petticoat Brigade” (La Brigade en Jupon) – Jean de Limur.
Guide rose/Pink guide (1935) – Director and index of salns and sporting houses, massage parlours and call houses in Paris, the province and the colonies. The image to the right is a maison close/Brothel in 1920) – Rue du Pélican (1st arr)
Men at Work
The Paris industrial sector provided employment for 40% of the men as mechanics, fitters and carpenters. Transport-related professions modernised as horse-drawn vehichels were gradually replaced by automobiles. Garages became more common place. Car manufacturing plants were located within Paris. Citroën, for example, had 4,500 employees in 1919 and over 31,000 ten years later. Assembly line workers, mechanics, engineers and designers were involved in the production. 1926 Infographic to the right.
Many of François Kollar’s photographs appear in the exhibition. Starting in 1931 he spent four years working on a long-format photo essay focusing on the labour market across France (2,000 photographs). In Paris, Kollar’s reporting highlighted sewing, embroidery and fashion workshops.
Other series focused on railways, the automotive industry or on markets. Although a signicant number of women were employed as domestic workers, their professions were not visible as they took place in the private sphere. Kollar received a significant commission from the publishing house Horizons de France entitle France Works (1931-1934) that established his reputation as one of the greatest industrial reports of the time.
Industrial Map of Paris Region
The Industrial Map of the Paris region shows the locations of the main plants, ports, shipping lands and transport routes.
Although Paris retained a higher number of salaried workers, the suburbs surpassed the capital in terms of large industrial producers: chemical, automotive, railway, aviation and energy industries.
Unemployment and poverty 1930s
Famous architect and designer Charlotte Perriand denounced the poor hygiene and living conditions, child mortality in the “Zone”. She was a committed theorist of the art of living. She coupled interior design with a critique of urban squalor in the form of this monumental photomontage: The Great Misery of Paris (1936)
Her social commitment and advocate for women’s rights added to her compiled pollution readings, which showed a connection to urban challenges surrounding public hygiene.
Bubonic plague and rats
“Disease no. 9” was the name given to the bubonic plague by authorities. Several cases were reported in the “block No. 9” of Rue Championnet, Rue du Ruisseau, Rue Letort and Rue du Poteau. The epidemic was the last in Paris. It was also known as the “ragmen plague”. The rag warehouses nearby housed many rats; the rags provided nests. The block was demolished in 1929 and replaced by affordable HBM housing and completed in 1933.
In 1931, this are had 2,257 inhabitants. The many young single mem were often born abroad, primarily in Portugal and Spain; also in Italy, Poland and Belgium. Unskilled workers accounted for one-fifth of the male working population. There were fewer ragmen and second-hand goods dealers than at porte de Montmartre. Censuses also listed employees (5%) mainly working for the City of Paris (4%).
Illustrated Magazines: A Booming Mass Media
A mass phenomenon, magazines experienced a spectacular growth in the 1930s. Photographs played a major part. This marked the beginning of photojournalism, sports columns, glamour and erotic features and human-interest stories.
Police/Detective and Glamour magazines
During the 1930s, illustrated magazines experienced an unprecedented boom. VU, a weekly news featuring photographs, was created in 1928. Voilà its first competitor, was first published in 1931. Some magazines specialized in crime stories:
Détective in 1928, Police magazine launched in 1930, Police et reportage and Réalisme et drames in 1933. Glamour and erotic magazines also popped up in the kiosk: Paris Sex Appeal, Pages folles or Paris Magazine.
Mass media and culture
Mass media and culture in the 1920s and 1930s included 1.5 million readers of one newspaper, Le Petit Parisien until 1935 when competition started. From 1931, screening rooms called “Cinéac” (short for “newsreel cinemas” in French), and often backed by a daily newspaper, started screening newsreel footage. The radio station for Le Petit Parisien began broadcasting in 1924. The most popular station was Radio-Paris, which became part of the State broadcasting network in 1933 – a network that included the Tour-Eiffel and PTT radio stations. Another development was the recognition of the status of professional journalist by the Law of 29 March 1935.
In 1933, Le Petit Parisien’s rotary presses printed nearly 1.6 million copies every day. This daily paper, owned by the Dupuy family, owed its strength to a robust industrial organisation, integrating a wide range of professions in papermaking, printing and media distribution. The newspaper’s modernity and international distribution were the subject of stained-glass windows designed by the master glassmaker Georges Hagnaver, whose workshop was located at 17 Rue Cail. Only one window from the set of six that recently entered the collection of the Musée Carnavalet is on display here.
Murder and a Parisian Interior
Violette Noizière was tried for paracide. The trial presented photos of the apartment and a scale drawing. These documents allow a peak into a small Paris apartment with three adults meant for two adults and a child.
The story of Violette Nozière, born January 22, 1915, combined two taboos: parricide and incest. The parricide, a crime against filiation, (killing of parents), sparked a discourse about monstrosity, aimed at both the act and its perpretrator.
Violette Nozière justified her actions by accusing her father of incest. However, far from rehabilitating her, this accusation exacerbated the heinousness of her actions in the eyes of her contemporaries.
Inside the Apartment
At the age of 18, the age of criminal liability as set by the 1906 Law, Violette Nozière was sentenced to death on October 12, 1934—an unusual verdict. As women had not been executed in France since the late 19th century, her sentence was commuted to hard labour for life. She was imprisoned and filly released in 1945.
Among the documents in the file, some photographs of the apartment where she used to live with her parents show a one-bedroom flat, cramped but comfortable, with gas, water and separate toilets, meant for couples with only one child – a standard for railway workers and more generally for the Rue de Madagascar where Violette her parents lived.
The exhibit closes with the faces of Parisian merchants posing in front of their shops. The postcard series showcases the diversity of Parisian businesses from 1926-1939.
Les Gens de Paris 1926-1936 Dans le miroir des recensements de population continues until February 8, 2026.