France was peaceful at the end of 1847, under King Louis Philippe I of the House of Orleans. The monarchy was more liberal than the preceding one of Charles X (of the House of Bourbon), but the Prime Minister, M. Francois Guizot, ruled the country with an iron hand. In early 1848, however, the popular opposition to the government grew and Louis Philippe abdicated in favor of his grandson, left the Palace of the Tuileries precipitously, and went into exile in England.
The Second Republic was installed with elections scheduled for September of 1848. Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, recently returned to France after a life of adventures, was elected a member of the National Assembly. A few months later he was elected President of the Republic for a period of four years and moved his residence to the modest Palace de l'Elysee. But in December of 1851, confident of his popularity, he staged a coup d'etat, dissolved the National Assembly and proposed a new constitution that would extend his presidential period to ten years. An almost unanimous vote assented to his wishes.
One year later, he requested and obtained in a plebiscite the restoration of the Empire. The Second Republic thus ended and the Second Empire was inaugurated. Louis Napoleon moved to the splendid Palace of the Tuileries, and wishing to emulate his famous uncle, changed his name to Napoleon III. He ruled France until 1870.
On November 10, 1847, Dr. Thomas W. Evans arrived in Paris, accompanied by his wife, having accepted the offer extended to him by a representative of Dr. Cyrus S. Brewster, a successful American dentist, to become his associate.
Thomas Wiltberger Evans had been born in Philadelphia on December 23, 1823, the third son of a retired Army major, not very well-off. Young Evans possessed great manual dexterity and a mechanical mind, and worked with a gold and silver artisan, who also fabricated instruments for dentists and springs for dentures. Against the wishes of his father who wanted him to become a lawyer, Tom enrolled in the Jefferson Medical College, where he received his dental diploma in 1843. During his years at the university Tom's preceptor was Dr. John de Haven White, a prestigious Philadelphia dentist. In 1843, Tom Evans married Agnes Josephine Doyle, daughter of a businessman, and opened his dental office in Lancaster, PA. Soon Dr. Evans gained a fine reputation as an eximious gold foil operator1.
In 1847, Evans was contacted by a representative of Dr. Brewster, who offered him an associateship in Paris. This is how the Evanses moved to France, shortly before the fall of King Louis Philippe. Tom was 24 years old.
Dr. Evans was affable and courteous, of good height, always smiling and well-mannered, with abundant sideburns and mustache as was the fashion of the times, and with a shaven chin. He possessed ample, carefully brushed and slightly wavy hair, which, with the passage of time started to thin out. He had gray-blue eyes, and always dressed elegantly and according to fashion. In addition, he had an attractive and captivating personality that made him popular in social gatherings.
In 1850, the President, Prince Louis Napoleon requested the services of Dr. Brewster, who could not see him because he was ill. Dr. Evans came as a substitute and, in this way the prince and the dentist met. Soon after Dr. Evans became not only the dentist of the ruler but also his friend and confidant.
In his memoirs, Evans described Napoleon as not a handsome man, his forehead was broad, his nose prominent, had small grayish-blue eyes, generally expressionless owing to a somnolent drooping of the eyelids. He was below average height, of blonde and sallow complexion, his face lengthened by a small goatee, always carefully dressed. He was a hard worker, and extremely cautious in all his decisions.
Although at that time in Europe, dentists were not treated as equals to physicians, professors or scientists in general, Louis Napoleon always showed Evans his highest regard. Soon, Evans was given an appointment to the Court, with all the privileges, including the same salary, given to physicians and in 1854, before a trip that Evans made to America, the Emperor decorated him as Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur.
Miss Harriet Howard, a beautiful and elegant blonde, was the "official" mistress of the Prince-President, and she was also Evans' patient. Louis Napoleon had a secret exit of the Palace de l'Elysee, that he used to visit Harriet. But he was also visited by other lady-friends, some of whom were actresses of the Comedie Francaise. Dr. Evans was part of the select group of friends who knew of these escapades and covered the ruler's tracks.
When Louis Napoleon became Napoleon III, his advisors urged him to marry in order to have a successor and create a dynasty. It was necessary, of course, that the Emperor marry a noble woman and if possible that his marriage would consolidate a political alliance. This was not easy, because the European royalty did not considered him of true royal blood, and he was a Catholic. For these reasons, several possible candidates rejected his offer. On some occasions, Evans was the Emperor's envoy to discuss marriage possibilities with European princesses.
Finally, Napoleon married Eugenie de Montijo, Countess of Teba, an Andalusian lady who resided in Paris and who, although not of blue blood, was related to numerous members of the royalty. Eugenie, a very elegant, beautiful and extremely intelligent lady, was also Evans' patient The Court dentist introduced Eugenie to the Emperor, and they were married in January of 1853, in a sumptuous wedding at Notre Dame de Paris Napoleon III was 45 and Eugenie, 26.
In the two decades between 1850 and 1870 France revived her best former splendor, and Evans participated actively in the events of the Second Empire in all its glory. The reconstruction of Paris under Prefect Baron Georges Eugene Haussmann, created the wide avenues and beautiful monuments that distinguish Paris to this day. Dr. Evans, through his personal friendship with Haussmann and Napoleon, knew of the plans and could make real estate investments that resulted in great profits. Later he also made successful investments in Pennsylvania and New York, and became a very rich man.
In his professional work, Dr. Evans became the dentist to European royalty, including the King of Bavaria, Maximilian II, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), Vittorio Emmanuele II, King of Sardinia, that would later reign over united Italy, the King of Greece, the Emir of Algeria, Abdel-Kader, the Sultan of Turkey, the King of Belgium, and many others. In many of his professional visits to the royal palaces' Dr. Evans also carried out political missions of national interest.
It is important to mention that Dr. Evans was a skillful dentist, up-to-date on the latest advancements in his profession. He was the first in Europe to use rubber as a denture base, and he always tried new techniques such as the use of nitrous oxide as an anesthetic, and new procedures for amalgams, gold foil and porcelains. He used a manual drill for cavity preparations, and after 1871, used the foot pedal-activated drill invented by James Beall Morrison that year. He was also an expert in orthodontic techniques that he divulged in Europe.
Thomas Evans was a classmate and lifelong friend of Samuel Stockton White. In 1844, White founded a company for the manufacture of dental supplies and instruments, that became a leading company in the world for more than a century. Through his friend, Evans could obtain all the American materials that were not available in Europe. The S.S. White Co. published The Dental News Letter, one of the first dental journals, which in 1859 became The Dental Cosmos. Evans published many papers in these journals, maintaining his visibility and prestige in America.
Evans' professional and economic success and his great prestige on both sides of the Atlantic, attracted many American dentists to practice in France, and also induced the French dentists to adopt the modern techniques of their American colleagues.
The Civil War broke out in the U.S. in 1861, after Abraham Lincoln became President. At the outbreak of the Civil War, the relations between the Union and France had been friendly, especially after Napoleon's visit to Washington in the summer of 1861, when the North received military supplies from France.
But the Confederacy represented the interests of the great landowners and the Southern aristocratic families who tried to maintain a lifestyle that was slowly vanishing. Europe, still ruled by royalty, was closer to the Southern cause which resembled more their lifestyle. The royals ignored the fact that the fortune of the Southern families, based on their plantations of cotton, tobacco, and other crops, was maintained by the slavery of the Black workers. In addition, France felt a greater attachment to the South since a great portion of its territory, including its largest and richest city, New Orleans, had belonged to France. France also needed the cotton from the Southern states; furthermore, the splitting of the country in two would favor the French designs on Mexico. The British press and its Parliament were also very partial to the Southern cause.
But the Emperor was urged by his advisors to recognize the Confederacy, assuming that Great Britain would follow suit. Thomas Evans, on the other hand, was a great defender of the Union cause and he expressed his views to the Emperor on many occasions with great vehemence and many arguments Evans describes in his memoirs how he learned, in 1862, that Mr. Roebuck, a member of the British Parliament, from the Liberal Party, was going to announce in the House of Commons, that Prance was planning to recognize the Southern Confederacy. The doctor rushed to the Tuileries Palace where the Emperor told him he had not made any such statement to Mr. Roebuck. At his urging, Napoleon sent a telegram to another member of parliament, requesting that he deny such promise if expressed by Mr. Roebuck. Informed of this telegram, Roebuck did not go through with his plan.
Finally, Napoleon III decided to send Dr. Evans to the United States in 1864 in order to analyze the situation first hand and report directly back to him. The dentist met with Lincoln, with Secretary of State William H. Seward, and with General Ulysses S. Grant, Commander of the Union forces.
Back in Paris, he told the Emperor that, in his view, the war would not last long and that the North would win. The doctor's opinion prevailed. He prevented France, and probably other countries, from recognizing and helping the Confederacy, which might have changed the result of the war and the course of history.
During the two decades of his government, Napoleon III was involved in several international adventures, such as the Crimean War and the attempt to install, with no popular support, Archduke Maximilian of Austria as Emperor of Mexico. Maximilian was ultimately defeated and shot by President Benito Juarez.
Dr. Evans was interested, early in his career, in the medical and sanitary aspects of the battle fields and the war hospitals. He visited military hospitals in the Crimean War, in the War between Austria and Prussia and in Italy, and developed methods for the treatment of jaw fractures and the repair of facial wounds. In 1865, he published a book describing the medical assistance methods developed during the U.S. Civil War and their application in Europe. He collaborated actively in the medical aspects of the Franco-Prussian War (see below) designing battle field hospitals and ambulances.
In 1870 France declared war on Prussia over an incident related to the succession of Isabel II to the throne of Spain. The French troops commanded by Napoleon III were defeated in several battles, and the Emperor was made a prisoner. Dr. Evans played an important role in the evacuation and medical assistance to the wounded in the battle of Sedan in September 1870.
After the defeat, the political opposition to the Emperor and to Empress Eugenie, who had stayed as Regent, increased to a point where their authority disappeared and the Third French Republic was proclaimed. General Louis Trochu, who as the military governor of Paris was in charge of protecting the Empress, became the President of the Provisional Government.
Eugenie, alone and lacking support, escaped from the palace and went directly to Dr. Evans' house. The next day, the doctor took the Empress surreptitiously, in a trip that lasted two days, using a carriage and in part the train, buying the silence of innkeepers and avoiding police and soldiers, passing barriers and toll stations, and finally arriving in the coastal city of Deauville, where Mrs. Evans was spending her vacation. There Evans could convince an English lord, owner of a yacht, to take the Empress to England. Crossing the English Channel was hazardous due to bad weather, but they finally arrived in Southampton and Eugenie sought asylum in England where she lived the rest of her life. In this way, Evans saved the Empress from prison, and maybe the guillotine.
Napoleon III was released from prison in 1871, and he joined Eugenie in England where he died in 1873. Eugenie died during a visit to Spain in 1920.
The only son of Napoleon III and Eugenie and heir to the throne, years later enlisted in the British Army and was killed in South Africa in 1879. His remains were repatriated but arrived in advanced state of decomposition, but Dr. Evans identified them by their dental status. Evans was not, however the first to identify a cadaver by the dental findings: Paul Revere, in 1776, identified the remains of Dr. Joseph Warren, the hero of Bunker Hill, by a bridge he had made for him.
Dr. and Mrs. Evans remained in England for a few months returning to Paris when the Third Republic was established under President Thiers. Dr. Evans resumed his dental practice and continued his personal and professional relationship with the European royalty. His mansion once again became the center of parties and social gatherings, and he hosted important visitors, including ex-President U.S. Grant, and other dignitaries.
But the life of Evans was not only professional and social. Already in his fifties, but always elegant and attractive, he had an affair with an actress named Marie, or Mery, Laurent, 23 years old, and through her he became acquainted with writers and artists such as Edouard Manet, Stephane Mallarme, James Whistler and others. This affair, which lasted a long time and was at times tumultuous, is not mentioned by Evans in his memoirs, but has been reconstructed by his biographers from information obtained from his correspondence and from other persons. The relationship between Evans and his wife Agnes was always excellent, although the doctor traveled frequently for professional or political reasons, that may have hidden other purposes. It is unknown whether Agnes ignored these activities of her husband or accepted them as the norm for Paris at the turn of the century.
Evans was also involved in the publishing business, founding in 1868 the first American newspaper in Paris. He also collected art, and had over a hundred paintings, some of them very valuable.
Mrs. Evans died in January 1897, and Dr. Evans in December of the same year. The major portion of their great fortune was left to the Dental School of the University of Pennsylvania, which to this day houses the Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute.
Dr. Evans was not only a very competent dentist but the events of the time and his remarkable personal qualities made him a significant player in important historic events. H]s friendship and loyalty to Napoleon III and to Empress Eugenie and his obvious diplomatic skills allowed him to render services of incalculable value to his country during the Civil War. The fascinating story of Thomas Evans places him in the center of the artistic and cultural life of Paris in the second half of the 19th Century with all its legends of bohemia and genius.