Palais de l'Industrie 1850s - 1860s

Edouard Baldus captured the Palais de l'Industrie with a photographic print, a monument to 19th-century industrial progress. Baldus, working in the context of France’s ambitious modernization projects under Napoleon III, presents us with more than just a building. The Palais, constructed for the 1855 Paris Exposition, was to showcase France's industrial and colonial power. It was meant to symbolize progress, but for whom? Consider the labor and resources extracted from colonized lands to fuel this industry, or the workers who toiled in factories, often in harsh conditions. Baldus's photograph, with its meticulous detail, invites us to reflect on the narratives of progress and the unacknowledged human cost of industrial advancement. While the Palais de l’Industrie no longer stands, its image encourages us to question what and who we memorialize in our built environment.