5 juin 1897
24 mars 1985
Une rencontre avec Georges-Henri Rivière, le musicien muséographe qui inventa les écomusées, dans : Le Monde, 8/9 juillet 1979.
Dhuys (Jean-François), Georges-Henri Rivière, un homme dans le siècle, octobre 1987.
Fields (Armond), Henri Rivière, Ed. Hubschmid et Bouret, 1985.
Haggerty (Michael), Georges Henri Rivière, un mariage fou, dans : Jazz, 1984.
Leiris (Michel), Portrait de Rivière, dans : L'homme, 96, octobre/décembre 1985, p. 137.
Levaillant (Françoise), La muséologie selon Georges Henri Rivière, bibliographie critique, dans : Revue d'Art, 1990, vol. 90, n°1, p. 108.
Levi-Strauss (Claude), Allocution à la cérémonie en hommage à GHR du 26 novembre 1985, dans : Ethnologie française, t.16, n°2, avril/juin 1986.
Nina Gorgus, Le magicien des vitrines. Le muséologue Georges-Henri Rivière, Ed. de la MSH, Paris 2003 .
Rivière (Georges Henri), La muséologie selon Georges Henri Rivière, 1989.
Salles (Georges), Donations de D. David-Weill aux musées français, Éd. des musées nationaux, 1953.
Sid Ahmed Baghli, Patrick Boylan & Yani Herreman, Histoire de l'ICOM (1946-1996), ICOM, 1998.
Georges-Henri Rivière : un demi-siècle d'ethnologie de la France, dans : Terrain, carnets du Patrimoine ethnologique, 5, octobre 1985.
Allocution en hommage à Georges-Henri Rivière, dans : Ethnologie Française, 1985.
Fils de Maurice Alphonse Jules Rivière et de Marguerite Philomène Élise Dacheux, il est né à Paris le 5 juin 1897. Georges Henri Léon Benjamin Rivière obtient son baccalauréat le 29 juin 1913 à la Faculté des Lettres de Paris, mention latin, langues vivantes et philosophie. Georges-Henri R. vivra dans le culte de son oncle, le célèbre peintre et graveur Henri Rivière, qui fut secrétaire de rédaction de la revue "Le Chat noir", puis, au coté de Rodolphe Salis, responsable du théâtre "Le Chat Noir" (1887-1897). Henri Rivière avait aussi des amis très savants dont il imprimait les planches de catalogues érudits : Edmond Potier (Antiquités grecques et romaines du Louvre), Pierre d'Espezel (archiviste), Léonce Rosenberg et Raymond Koechlin, président du Conseil des musées nationaux.
Démobilisé, il est employé aux écritures chez le constructeur "Pelnard, Considere, Caquot et Cie" où il rencontre celui qui sera à l'origine de sa carrière dans les musées, Georges Salles, petit-fils de Gustave Eiffel. Il prendra également des leçons auprès de Gustave Koechlin de 1920 à 1925 qui fut le mentor du "Groupe des six". Dans l'après-guerre, G.-H. Rivière fréquente les cabarets de jazz parisien à Pigalle en devenant par ailleurs critique d'art aux "Cahiers d'art" et dans "Documents". Habitué du "Boeuf sur le toit" dans les années 20, où se croisent toutes les vedettes de la mode, de la peinture et les écrivains, il écrit en 1925 une chanson pour Joséphine Baker. Ainsi, en 1933, une photographie du fonds montre Joséphine Baker dansant avec des instruments africains sortis d'une vitrine du Musée de l'homme sous le regard de G.-H. Rivière.
Ainsi, grâce à son réseau mondain, le mécénat de David Weill, G.-H. Rivière organise une exposition d'art précolombien dont il signe le catalogue en 1928 aux Arts décoratifs. C'est à la suite de cette aventure rocambolesque que le vicomte de Noailles l'intègre auprès du savant américaniste Georges Rivet, directeur du musée d’ethnologie, qui lui demande de relancer le musée du Trocadéro. Le nouveau sous-directeur du laboratoire d'Anthropologie du Muséum National d'Histoire naturelle s’acquitte avec succès de son aménagement selon René Gimpel dans son journal en 1929. Commissaire adjoint du Pavillon français de la Word's Fair de New York en 1939, Rivière invente le nom de "musée de l'homme" qui nait de la reconstruction du Musée d'ethnologie au Palais de Chaillot suite à la l'Exposition Coloniale de 1937. Rivière utilisa son réseau de marchands ouvrant à Levi-Strauss les portes de la galerie Wildenstein qui y expose ses objets de la récente expédition au Matto-Grosso en 1936.
Collectionneur d'objets folkloriques, Georges Henri Rivière se rend compte que la France ne pas dispose pas de musées sur le folklore dont il élabore un projet dès avril 1931. À l'occasion de l'exposition universelle de 1937, le Front populaire va témoigner d'un grand intérêt pour la démocratisation culturelle. Grâce aux engagements et à la dynamique de Georges-Henri Rivière, les prémisses du musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires (M.N.A.T.P.) voient le jour à partir des collections de la section française du musée d'ethnographie du Trocadéro. Des équipes d'enquêteurs sont constituées pour aller battre la campagne et collecter les objets.
Georges-Henri Rivière marque sa différence avec le Musée de l'Homme : alors que ce dernier est rattaché institutionnellement au Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, le Musée dépendra de la section des beaux-arts du ministère de l'Éducation nationale, embryon du ministère de la Culture, créé avec André Malraux. Celui-ci s'installe dans le sous-sol du Musée des monuments français, mais les collections s'agrandissant, Georges Henri Rivière après la guerre, imagine un musée scientifique en plein air dans divers endroits de Paris. Après de nombreuses difficultés, le musée se voit attribuer un emplacement dans le Jardin d'acclimatation au Bois de Boulogne. Georges Henri Rivière travaille avec l'architecte Jean Dubuisson, qui élabore un bâtiment alors très moderne qui doit abriter les collections et les équipes de recherche. Il fonde ainsi le nouveau Musée national des Arts et Traditions populaires (M.N.A.T.P.), dont il est désormais nommé conservateur en chef de 1959 à 1967. En 1979, il raconte comment Malraux le mit sans appel à la retraite en 1967 après avoir découvert la création du laboratoire associé du CNRS.
Le fonds complète chronologiquement les documents publics sur son activité de conservateur du M.N.A.T.P. versés au Département Éducation, Culture et Affaires sociales (D.E.C.A.S.) des Archives nationales. Expert de l'UNESCO depuis 1948, Rivière supervise parallèlement le centre de documentation de l'UNESCO-ICOM.
Les vingt dernières années de sa carrière, Rivière multiplie les activités de recherches, les participations associatives, de fréquentes collaborations à la création d’Écomusée tout en enseignant le fruit de son travail en muséologie.
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