Exhibition – The United States and Chantilly. Interwoven Histories

During his acceptance speech at the Académie française, in tribute to his predecessor Charles de Montalembert, Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale, founder of the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly, celebrated “the triumph [in the United States] of free institutions whose origins are inextricably linked to the final glory of the old French monarchy.”

The Duke of Aumale was no doubt aware that the history of the Château de Chantilly and the princely dynasties that shaped it is closely interwoven with that of the United States of America. From the War of Independence to the struggle to abolish slavery, from journeys into exile to the conquest of the American West, from the battlefields of the American Civil War to the grand mansions of the American Gilded Age, these unexpected connections reveal an ongoing dialogue between one of France’s most prestigious châteaux and a nation in the making. These political, cultural and human ties between one of France’s greatest châteaux and a young allied nation with a unique destiny form the central theme of the exhibition at the Condé Museum.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through nearly two centuries of political, cultural, artistic and human exchanges between Chantilly and the United States. It highlights the unique role played by the Princes of Orléans in forging these transatlantic connections, while revealing Chantilly’s lasting influence on the American imagination.

The story begins at the end of the eighteenth century, on the eve of the French Revolution, in the kitchens of the Princes of Condé at the Château de Chantilly, then regarded as the laboratory of Europe’s culinary avant-garde. James Hemings, an emancipated enslaved man who went on to become one of the founding fathers of American gastronomy, received exceptional training at the Château in 1787 under the Prince of Condé’s pastry chefs and cooks. Hemings thus became the first American to undertake a formal culinary apprenticeship in France. On his return to Thomas Jefferson, he helped to introduce specialities inspired by Chantilly to the United States, such as ice cream, macarons, floating islands and macaroni and cheese – the now famous ‘Mac & Cheese’!

Ten years earlier, in 1777, Louis Philippe d’Orléans, the future Philippe Égalité, had chosen to support the American struggle for independence. A liberal aristocrat, fascinated by the new ideals emerging from across the Atlantic, he saw this conflict as both an opportunity to promote a new vision of the monarchy and a chance to bolster his own prestige.  In 1778, he was given command of a French squadron engaged off the coast of Ouessant, an episode that bears witness to the involvement of the French elite in the birth of the United States.

Twenty years later, the upheavals of the French Revolution reversed the course of events. In 1796, Philippe Égalité’s sons, in turn, set off for exile in America. Louis-Philippe, the future King of the French and father of the Duke of Aumale, set sail clandestinely on a forged Danish passport before being joined by his brothers, the Dukes of Montpensier and Beaujolais. Equipped with a few horses, a modest retinue and drawing materials, the three princes undertook a lengthy journey across a country whose foundations were still being laid.

From Philadelphia to the banks of the Mississippi, they encountered a fragile newly established democracy and met many of the leading figures of the new Republic, including President George Washington at his Mount Vernon estate. Their journey also exposed them to the darker realities of the New World: the plight of Indigenous peoples, the condition of enslaved African Americans, and the tensions within a society founded upon the ideals of liberty and equality.

These questions would continue to weigh heavily on the d’Orléans family for years to come. In 1848, following the fall of the July Monarchy, the Duke of Aumale – son of Louis-Philippe and founder of the Condé Museum in Chantilly – wrote aboard the Solon, the ship carrying him into exile to England: “I shall probably become a citizen of the United States; I have always loved farming; I shall clear the land and live off the fruit of my labour…” (Archives of the Condé Museum, 1 PA 103, 20 March 1848). Behind this vision of a new life lay an idealised image of America as a land of freedom and new beginnings.

Like many of his contemporaries, the Duke of Aumale was committed to opposing slavery. His library contains landmark works of the abolitionist movement, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Cotton Kingdom.

His commitment went beyond principle. In 1862, two of the Duke of Aumale’s nephews, the Count of Paris and the Duke of Chartres, enlisted in the Union Army under General George B. McClellan. They fought to preserve the Union and to end slavery, tying the family’s history to one of the defining conflicts in the making of modern America.

The exhibition also explores the remarkable career of General Philip Kearny. Former aide-de-camp to the Duke of Aumale in the Chasseurs d’Afrique, hero of the Mexican-American War and the first American to be awarded the Legion of Honour, Kearny was killed on 1 September 1862 at the Battle of Chantilly in Virginia. The battle took its name from the nearby community of Chantilly, itself named by Richard Henry Lee in memory of the château he had admired in France, illustrating the power of the cultural exchange between the two sides of the Atlantic.

By the end of the nineteenth century, as the United States experienced unprecedented economic expansion, Chantilly had become a major source of inspiration for the great fortunes of the American Gilded Age. The prestige of the Château de Chantilly project undertaken by the Duke of Aumale and the extraordinary collection he had assembled attracted architects, collectors and industrial magnates. The château featured prominently in the American architectural press, while George W. Vanderbilt II and his architect Richard Morris Hunt visited Chantilly before embarking on the construction of Biltmore House in North Carolina. Likewise, William K. Vanderbilt and Alva Vanderbilt, accompanied by Hunt, toured the newly reconstructed Château de Chantilly, which became a source of inspiration for the magnificent residences then under construction in Newport.

The exhibition will explore the rise of collecting and the cultural rivalry that developed between America’s wealthiest families and European collectors. The Duke of Aumale’s acquisition in 1854 of Christopher Columbus’s famous letter to Luis de Santángel – the first printed document announcing the discovery of America, a rare copy of which is held at the Condé Museum – reflects his ambition to make Chantilly a place of shared memory linking the Old World and the New.

The exhibition is supported by the Friends of the Domaine de Chantilly.