From Pennsylvania to the Noyon region: the acclimatisation of American plants in Varesnes by the Count of Barbançon in the late 18th century

A correspondent of Benjamin Franklin and a reader of Enlightenment works, Augustin Duprat de Barbançon received numerous seeds from Pennsylvania, which he cultivated in the nurseries and gardens of Varesnes, for his own benefit and that of the king’s botanists and the gentleman-growers of his time.

Through an account of this unique endeavour, the lecture will trace the botanical exchanges that linked the young United States of America and France at that time, and which placed the Noyon region within the major international scientific networks of the late 18th century.