One circus poster helped compress Mount Pelee into a single-survivor story. Saint-Pierre’s destruction is usually attached to Louis-Auguste Cyparis, later advertised by Barnum & Bailey as “The Only Living Object in the City of Death.” The record is wider and less tidy: Leon Compere-Leandre appears in contemporary accounts, Havivra Da Ifrile remains disputed, and naval telegrams helped repeat an incomplete version of the disaster. Street views of Saint-Pierre, harbor positions and the interior of the stone cell let the episode compare what actually protected each survivor: shelter, blast direction, location.
The poster scans, photographs, newspapers, books, and testimony listed below remain the checkable archive.
Chapters:
00:00 The “only survivor” story
00:45 Mont Pelée 1902 in twenty seconds
1:19 The girl in the boat: Havivra Da Ifrile
4:26 Cyparis, Hovey, and the stone vault
5:44 Léon Compère-Léandre enters the record
7:40 How a naval telegram became a media error
8:54 Barnum & Bailey and the 1903 circus poster
The archival material is central to the argument: books, newspapers, maps, early photographs, posters and public-domain scans are used to separate survivor testimony from later publicity.
Visual note: Some scenes are AI-assisted cinematic reconstructions created for historical and educational context where no 1902 motion footage exists. They are not original 1902 footage.
Archival Sources & Credits
Public Domain / No known restrictions / CC0 materials:
-Angelo Heilprin, The Eruption of Pelée, 1908. Cornell University Library / Internet Archive.
-Angelo Heilprin, Mont Pelée and the Tragedy of Martinique: A Study of the Great Catastrophes of 1902, 2nd ed., 1903. J. B. Lippincott Company / Internet Archive.
-Charles Morris, The Volcano’s Deadly Work: From the Fall of Pompeii to the Destruction of St. Pierre, 1902. W. E. Scull / Public Domain archival scan.
-The National Geographic Magazine, Vol. XIII, 1902. Robert T. Hill and Israel C. Russell reports. Smithsonian Libraries / Internet Archive.
-Jean Hess, La Catastrophe de la Martinique, 1902. Public Domain archival scans.
-Alfred Lacroix, La Montagne Pelée et ses éruptions, 1904. Public Domain archival scans.
-Edmund Otis Hovey, reports on Mont Pelée and the Martinique eruptions, 1902–1904. Public Domain.
-The Complete Story of the Martinique and St. Vincent Horrors, 1902. Internet Archive / Public Domain.
-Library of Congress, Chronicling America, Gallica / Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Internet Archive materials used for historical photographs, maps, newspapers, books, and early motion-picture footage. Public Domain / No known restrictions where indicated.
-Cincinnati Art Museum, Barnum & Bailey / Ludger Sylbaris poster, 1903. Original work Public Domain; digital object via Cincinnati Art Museum.
-Wikimedia Commons historical Mount Pelée, Saint-Pierre, Louis-Auguste Cyparis, Ludger Sylbaris, Louis Mouttet, cruiser Suchet, maps, and related archival files. Public Domain where indicated.
-Cachot de Cyparis (Saint-Pierre, Martinique) – 01.jpg by Thérèse Gaigé, Wikimedia Commons. CC0 1.0.
-Angelo Heilprin portrait, Bibliothèque numérique Manioc / Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.
Internet Archive / Prelinger Archives, Panama Canal archival footage. Public Domain.
Creative Commons materials:
Cachot de Cyparis.jpg by Patrice78500, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.
Text-only / research references:
-HHTandN, “Roddam: A Miraculous Escape.” Used as a text reference only.
-Outremer Memory entries on Louis-Auguste Cyparis and Léon Compère-Léandre. Used as text references only.
-Sotheby’s, The Ricky Jay Collection, New York, 27–28 October 2021, Lot 576; Lot-Art mirror page used only as a research reference for the Barnum & Bailey / Ludger Sylbaris poster.
-Some photographs in Heilprin’s 1903 volume are credited in the original publication to Angelo Heilprin and Underwood & Underwood. Archival images, maps, scanned pages, and historical materials are used for documentary, educational, and historical context.
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