The author

But who was this person who has left us this exceptional testimony? Michel Edmond de Selys Longchamps, who was born in Paris, rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, en 1813. His father, an ex mayor of Liège, was a representative of the Ourthe region in the Paris legislative body; there he married a Parisian, Marie Denise Gandolphe, whose family had counted amongst its ranks several of the State’s senior agents. The family left Paris in 1827 to come and settle in Liège territory, where the Selys owned several chateaus…including that of Colonster, today a property of the University, and that of Longchamps, situated near Waremme. It was in the latter that the family settled. At least during the summer months as, in the winter, they took up residence in the town house they owned in Liège, in Hors Château. If he didn’t follow the courses delivered by the completely new university, Michel Edmond did visit its scientific collections as he very quickly revealed himself to be fascinated by nature, and birds in particular, followed by insects. In 1829 he was welcomed into the Liège Natural Sciences Society thanks to his work on the Lepidoptera (butterflies). It was above all for his work on dragonflies that he would become known. His wife Sophie also had origins in a scientific background because she was the daughter of Jean-Baptiste d'Omalius d'Halloy, author of the first geological map of our regions. They had four children, all of whom were born in the town house in which the young couple lived, after returning from their honeymoon, on what is now the Boulevard de la Sauvenière in Liège. Joining the Waremme local government council in 1843, Michel Edmond would sit on it for over 50 years. In 1846, he participated actively in the founding congress of the Liberal party, of which he became one of the most important members. In the same year, he sat on the provincial council before becoming, in 1855, a Liberal senator for the Waremme borough, a seat he would occupy practically up until his death. This discovered him on the 11th December, 1900, whilst he was writing up the conclusions to his final works on dragonflies. He had suspended the writing of his diary two weeks before that date. The life of Michel Edmond de Selys was divided into four areas: his scientific research, his role as head of the family, his political life, and his activities as a provincial gentleman. His diary gives a remarkable account of how much attention he devoted to each of these facets of his existence.