Louis Braille's coffin is carried into the Pantheon in Paris, 1952. The viewer can see down the long and grand Parisian avenue. A decorated hearse is visible on the right-hand side in the middle plane of the picture, while in the foreground, French soldiers stand in a formal line within the fenced area of the church. The soldiers wear long, dark jackets and light pants tucked into boots. They have plumed helmets and hold their swords vertically, directly in front of them. The coffin is carried between the line of soldiers. More soldiers and crowds are visible in the distance.
Louis' momentous accomplishments on behalf of blind and visually impaired people were not fully recognized until many years after his death. In 1952, however, one hundred years after his death, Louis Braille's contribution was recognized in France and by the rest of the world. His body was reinterred in Paris in the Pantheon, the resting place of illustrious French men and women such as Voltaire, Zola, and Marie Curie. However, Louis' hands were severed from his body and remain in an urn in the village cemetery of Coupvray, and Coupvray named the street where he lived after its famous son.
