The world's first geographical society, the Société de géographie, is established on December 15, 1821, in the Paris Hôtel de Ville.

Among its two hundred and seventeen founders are some of the greatest scientific names of the time, including Pierre-Simon Laplace (the Society's first president), Georges Cuvier, Charles Pierre Chapsal, Vivant Denon, Joseph Fourier, Gay-Lussac, Claude Louis Berthollet, Alexander von Humboldt, Jean-François Champollion, and François-René de Chateaubriand.

Most of the men of science who had accompanied Bonaparte in his Egyptian expedition are members: Edme-François Jomard, Conrad Malte-Brun, Jules Dumont d'Urville, Jules Paul Benjamin Delessert, Hottinguer, Henri Didot, Bottin and others such as Jean-Baptiste Benoît Eyriès.