March 13, 2002: Snapshot

Diving into his research

By Josephine Sittenfeld ’02

In carrel B-9 H-6 in Firestone Library, history major Nicolas Dumont ’02 is awash in materials relating to his thesis, the iconographic representation of the French Navy during the period leading to the Sino-French War (1873—1885). His study is based on French illustrated periodicals of the late 19th century — 52 volumes of which are piled in his carrel. He confesses, “I received an e-mail from Carrel Patrol a few weeks ago warning me that I had taken up too much space and that I had to rearrange materials as quickly as possible to replace my carrel mate, who had requested to be relocated.” After hearing his side, though, the carrel office made some special modifications to his carrel to help ease the load.

Dumont, a dual U.S. and French citizen who grew up in Scarsdale, New York, spent his junior year in Paris and studied at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France during fall break. He intends to return to France next year for his master’s degree. When not working on his thesis, he plays cello in the orchestra, where he is the section’s principal.