Marie-Antoinette’s expiatory chapel, which was built in 1816 in the Queen’s former prison cell at the Conciergerie in Paris, exemplifies the royalist cult of remembrance in Restoration France. Examining its propagandistic content and relevance as an historical site, this article argues that the memorial shows both an interpretive and an antiquarian approach to history and mirrors the awakening of nineteenth-century modern historical consciousness.

Emma Conant Church (1831–1893) was an American artist who had a successful career painting both original works of art and Old Master copies in the United States and Europe. She became part of the sizable foreign artist communities in Paris and Rome, where American artists, and particularly female artists, attracted much attention. In the era before originals and photographs were widely available and affordable, women like Church enjoyed great success – and an emancipated lifestyle – by catering their artistic production to the needs of travelers who sought out souvenirs of their time abroad.