Louis de Geofroy

François-Henri-Louis de Geofroy (1822–1899) combined a diplomatic career in the United States and East Asia with an interest in art and collecting. During his service as French chargé d’affaires in Washington, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln prompted an unusually public expression of sympathy. Geofroy and Charles-Henri-Philippe Gauldrée-Boilleau, the French consul general in New York, signed the resolutions adopted by French residents there on 18 April 1865. They condemned the murder, offered condolences to Lincoln’s family, and expressed hope for the recovery of the wounded secretary of state, William Seward. ^{1, 2, 5}

Geofroy later represented France in China. On 29 June 1873 he joined the British, American, Russian, and Dutch representatives at an audience with the Tongzhi emperor in Beijing. ³

He returned to American affairs as France’s original commissioner on the French and American Claims Commission established in 1880. Sitting in Washington, it considered French claims arising from the American Civil War and American claims connected with French wars and upheavals in Mexico and Europe. Geofroy was succeeded by Alexis A. Lefaivre before the commission concluded its work. He also donated ethnographic and natural history objects to Draguignan's municipal museum. ^{4, 5}