Cover of archive folder "41.59" (Paul Magès collection)

In this document

The digitised page shows an orange cardboard folder with flaps, closed by a red elastic band fixed diagonally on the front p. 1.

A white label stuck in the bottom left corner bears the handwritten inscription "41.59" p. 1, which constitutes the archival reference for this folder within box no. 2 of the Paul Magès collection.

No other inscription, date or indication of content appears on this cover page.

Context

In the archives of engineers or industrial design offices, it is common for cardboard folders to serve as simple containers, bringing together various items (notes, plans, correspondence) around a single subject or a single work period.

The Paul Magès collection, an engineer at the origin of the hydropneumatic suspension developed at Citroën and then implemented in particular on the DS, is organised into numbered boxes which themselves contain referenced folders, as is the case here with the reference "41.59".

This material organisation, specific to archival filing, does not in itself provide information on the scientific or technical content kept inside.

Archivist's perspective

This page constitutes the material cover of folder "41.59": it does not document a technical or historical fact, but serves as a filing reference.

The summary associated with this same folder, Summary of folder 41-59: hydropneumatic suspension, rubber and DS developments, allows for a more precise identification of the nature of the items it contained — it is probably the essential complement to understand the real interest of the content of this file.

Without any indication other than the handwritten reference, it is not possible to attribute a date or specific content to this page: it remains, in the strict sense, a simple container item within the Magès collection.