What Does History Smell Like?
Researchers are finding ways to preserve scents that are disappearing. Others are recreating ones from centuries ago.
By Sophie Haigney
Image
The embalming of William the Silent, Prince of Orange, after his assassination in 1584 would have smelled fresh, sweet and slightly medicinal.
Candles created by Janie Korn. Photographs by Erik Tanner for The New York Times.
Anxiety sweat. Horsehair. Wet grass and soil after a rain. Sulfuric compounds from gunpowder. Eau de cologne containing rosemary, bergamot and bitter orange. A touch of leather.
This might have been what Napoleon’s retreat from the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 smelled like. At least, these are some of the elements that Caro Verbeek, an art historian and olfactory researcher, tried to incorporate when she was reconstructing the smell, in partnership with the perfumer Birgit Sijbrands, the scent designer Bernardo Fleming of International Flavors & Fragrances and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterda