Marseille Exposition Internationale d’Électricité 1908

The Exposition Internationale d’Électricité was an exhibition held in Marseille from April to October of 1908. The exhibition was loosely associated with a series of meetings of international electrical congresses that occurred between 1881 and roughly 1915, with the goal of standardizing units and terminology. Ironically, the most famous thing to come out of the 1908 exhibition was a poster by David Dellepiane (above), which is found today on many auction and art sites.

The 1908 Exposition in Marseille included an exhibition of incubators and human babies by Alexandre Lion. Dr. Lion operated storefront “institutes” with incubators and human babies in several cities in France and even New York, and also had incubator pavilions at many international exhibitions in both Europe and the United States around the turn of the century. Lion’s pavilion is just to the right of the Patisserie on the corner, you can see a sign on the rooftop.

The Exposition catalog contained an enthusiastic and flowery description of Dr. Lion’s incubator on p. 158.

“The Couveuse

“The work of incubators is not only a philanthropic work, worthy of the most benevolent interest because it is eminently charitable. It is also a scientific work which, as such, had the right of citizenship in the current Exhibition.

“Isn’t the latest progress in the incubator just one application, beneficent among many others, of Electricity, that adorable fairy that is decidedly as good as it is beautiful?

“These little infants so cute, so delicate resting in their tiny crystal houses, like delicious jewels in transparent cases, these frail creatures, whose life is only a breath at the mercy of the slightest imprudence, the slightest forgetfulness, fortunately have a vigilant guard who never sleeps on duty: Electricity watches over them with jealous care to ensure that the temperature of the small room is adequate for their needs. If this temperature changes, it automatically activates an indicator — a needle moving between two contacts close to each other. The slightest variation in heat, either more or less, closes the contact and activates the alarm bell.

“A dreamed-of cordon bleu, a docile and well-styled maid, here is the excellent Fairy [Electricity] transformed into an accomplished dry nurse, perfect in her new function as in all those that we have asked her to fulfill.”

• General Information
  • Dr. Alexandre Lion
  • The Lion Incubator
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, Paris
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, New York
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants, Barcelona
  • The Engineer and the Newborns, by W. A. Nelson and Paul L. Toubas and
• Press Coverage
  • La Maternité “Lion de Nice” pour Enfants Nés Avant Terme ou Débiles, by Dr. Ciaudo, 1895.
  • Les Couveuses pour Enfants, Gazette Médicale de Paris, 1900
  • Couveuses d’Enfants, La Maternité Lion, Paris, La Patrie, 1897
  • Paris Letter: An Improved System of Incubators, by O. Jennings, Pediatrics 1:427-428, 1896
  • Baby Incubators, The Strand Magazine, 1896, by James Walter Smith
  • Human Infant Incubation: A True Fairy-Tale of Modern Science from Leslie’s Weekly, 1897
  • The Saving of Human Life, Maternité Lion in NYC, The Literary Digest, 1898
  • Immature Infants in France, from The Lancet, January 16, 1897, page 196.
  • Alexandre Lion’s Incubator Charities in Europe (1894–1898) (The Embryo Project)
  • Newspaper Articles about Lion’s Storefronts and Expositions
• Maternité Lion Souvenir Booklets
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #1 (appears to be ~1896)
  • Oeuvre Maternelle des Couveuses d’Enfants , Paris Institute, Booklet Version #2 (appears to be ~1901)
  • Pamphlet from Alexander Lion’s exhibit at the 1898 exhibition in Torino, Italy. (PDF supplied by Dr. Thijs Gras, Amsterdam)
• Worlds Fairs and Expositions
  • Maternité Lion at the Lyon Exposition Universelle et Coloniale, 1894
    • Maternité Lion at the Lyon Exposition Universelle – Le Monde Illustré, 1894
  • Maternité Lion at the Bordeaux Exposition of 1895.
    • “La Maternité Lion,” by Louis Énault, Journal of the Bordeaux Exposition, 1895
  • Maternité Lion at the Amsterdam World Exposition, 1895
  • Maternité Lion at the Berliner Gewerbeausstellung, 1896
  • Maternité Lion at the Exposition National Suisse, Geneva, Switzerland, 1896
  • Maternité Lion at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, 1897
  • Maternité Lion at the Brussels International Exposition, 1897
  • Maternité Lion at the Turin L’Esposizione Generale Italiana, 1898
  • Maternite Lion at the Ghent Provincial Exposition of 1899
  • Maternité Lion at the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1900
  • Woman’s Exhibition in Earls Court, London, 1900
  • Maternité Lion at the Lille Exposition of 1902
  • Maternité Lion at the Marseille Colonial Exposition of 1906
  • Maternite Lion at the Bordeaux International Maritime Exposition of 1907
  • Maternité Lion at the Marseille Exposition Internationale d’Électricité, 1908
  • Maternité Lion at the Exposition Internationale de l’Est de la France, Nancy, France, 1909
  • Maternité Lion at the Brussels Exposition Universelle et Internationale, 1910
  • Maternite Lion at the Exposition du Centre de la France, Clermont-Ferrand, 1910
  • Maternité Liion at the Rome International Exposition of 1911
  • Maternité Lion at the Turin International Exposition of 1911
  • Maternité Lion at the Ghent International Exposition of 1913

Last Updated on 01/02/23