Ernest Jean-Baptiste Rupin (6 May 1845 – 24 October 1909) was a French

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

speleologist Speleology () is the scientific study of caves and other karst features, as well as their composition, structure, physical properties, history, ecology, and the processes by which they form (speleogenesis) and change over time (speleomorpholog ...

and photographer. He established the municipal museum in his home town of

Brive-la-Gaillarde Brive-la-Gaillarde (; Limousin dialect of ), commonly known as simply Brive, is a commune of France. It is a sub-prefecture and the largest city of the Corrèze department. It has around 46,000 inhabitants, while the population of the aggl ...

and served as its first curator. Rupin was born in a wealthy family in Brive and went to study law as well as fine arts at

Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...

. He took an interest in botany and anthropology as well. He worked as a receiver in his hometown. He married Joséphine Marie Augustine Mage who came from one of the wealthiest families in 1874 and this led to his decision of resigning from his work in 1874. From 1875 to 1878 he spent time travelling around Corrèze, meeting artists, scientists, and photographing. He also collected botanical specimens and took an interest in excavations at various historic sites. He established a society for science, history and archaeology of Corrèze in 1878 and served as its president from 1881 to 1903. The society also established a Brive museum in 1878 and he became its first curator on 14 June 1884. He worked there until his death and in the 1980s it was moved to Labenche Hotel and renamed as the Ernst Rupin Museum.

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