Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Musée de la Maison de Marie-Jeanne, located in Alaincourt (Aisne, Hauts-de-France), was inaugurated in July 2008. This municipal museum exhibits a private collection gathered by Marie-Jeanne Delville, seamstress and passionate about local history. The objects, dating from 1870 to 1970, illustrate daily life in the Oise Valley, supplemented by documents related to the writer Robert-Louis Stevenson, who went through the area in canoeing in 1876 and drew from it a traveler story, In canoeing on the northern rivers. The museum highlights this material and literary heritage, creating a bridge between generations.

Marie-Jeanne Delville, born in the mid-war period, devoted her life to collecting artifacts reflecting local lifestyles: irons, clothing from 1875 to 1950, sewing machines, toys, or postcards. Its approach is part of a desire for transmission, offering visitors — inhabitants, children, travellers — tangible access to the social history of Picardia. The themes discussed, such as the fabric, Art Deco, or childhood, reveal the evolution of domestic and cultural practices, while an entire room is dedicated to Stevenson, whose gaze on the Oise Valley, initially critical, s'adoucit to celebrate its authenticity.

The museum journey revolves around seven thematic spaces. One of them traces Stevenson's journey, from Maubeuge to Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, via an interactive map and objects mentioned in his book. Other rooms explore the region's textile history — marked by the culture of linen — the rituals of clothing care (teaching, laundry), or the impact of Art Deco on the fashion of the 1920s. A section devoted to childhood exposes toys and dolls, while a prospective space questions the innovations of the 21st century in Picardia. The museum is thus intended to be both conservatory and memory laboratory, anchored in a territory where Oise has shaped lives and stories.

Marie-Jeanne's collection dialogues with Stevenson's work, which described the objects and landscapes encountered in 1876. Among them, many are now exposed to the museum, creating a unique link between literature and material heritage. The Scottish writer, sick and tireless traveller, found in the Oise Valley a form of aesthetic redemption, far from the acerbic critics reserved for other regions. This meeting between a local collector and an international author gives the museum an intimate and universal dimension, where each object tells a story — that of the inhabitants, but also that of an external look that helped forge their identity.

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