About this episode
The episode discusses the founding of the world's first perfume archive, L'Osmothèque, and features an interview with perfumer Jean Claude Ellena.
On 26 April 1990, the world's first perfume archive opened in Versailles, France. The idea behind L'Osmothèque was to create a collection of scents and preserve their memory. Perfumer Jean Claude Ellena was one of the team who created it. He speaks to Jen Dale about how L'Osmothèque was founded and how perfumes from previous centuries, that no longer existed, were re-created. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by and curious about the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from how the Excel spreadsheet was developed, the creation of cartoon rabbit Miffy and how the sound barrier was broken. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: the moment Reagan and Gorbachev met in Geneva, Haitian singer Emerante de Pradines’ life and Omar Sharif’s legendary movie entrance in Lawrence of Arabia. You can learn…
People in this episode
Host: Jen Dale
Guest: Jean Claude Ellena
Topics covered
- perfume
- history
- cultural preservation
- scents
- interviews
Keywords
- perfume archive
- L'Osmothèque
- Jean Claude Ellena
- scents
- cultural history
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: L'Osmothèque
Places: Versailles
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