Célestin Port

Célestin Port (23 May 1828 – 4 March 1901) was a French archivist and historian.

Early life and education
Born in Paris to a modest family (his father ran an umbrella shop), he studied at the École des chartes, composed a thesis entitled Essai sur le commerce maritime de Narbonne  [Essay on the maritime commerce of Narbonne]  (submitted in 1852) and, in 1854, became archivist of the Department of Maine-et-Loire.

Career
Spurred on by his teacher Jules Quicherat, he dedicated forty-seven years of his life to the history of Anjou, on which he published several important works. His masterpiece — often plagiarised — is his "Dictionnaire historique, géographique et biographique de Maine-et-Loire" published in three volumes from 1874 to 1878. He also studied the War in the Vendée.

He worked at the same time on the classification of the departmental archives and, in 1891, he donated his personal collection of archival material to the departmental archives.

Other interests
Célestin Port made no mystery of his militant republican sympathies, but he kept his distance from party politics. His other interests included the theatre and Latin poetry. He also amassed a collection of engravings and photographs.

Publications

 * 3 volumes, also published by Lachèse et Dolbeau, Angers.
 * 40 pp
 * 628pp. Also published by Cosnier et Lachèse (Angers)