The Phenomenon of the museum and exhibition in French culture in the 18th century

The article examines the cultural practices that developed in France in the second half of the 18th century under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment. There were many initiatives that were related to familiarizing the educated classes with the latest scientific achievements. They took the form of meetings where lectures were given, what was heard was discussed, experiments and inventions were demonstrated. Often these periodic ongoing meetings also had their own periodical printed publications. Often these meetings were called museums, understood in the spirit of antiquity as a place of intellectual communication. One of such initiatives was the General Correspondence of Sciences and Arts, organized in Paris in the 1780–1880s by C. M. Pahin de la Blancherie, its activities are discussed in detail in this article. The sources were numerous publications made by C. M. Pahin de la Blancherie during the implementation of the main tasks of the General Correspondence of Sciences and Arts.