1838 births

Louis Baron (real name Louis Bouchêne or Bouchenez; September 1838 – 2 March 1920) was a French actor and bass singer.

Charles-Joseph Pigeon (29 March 1838 – 18 March 1915) was born in Le Mesnil-Lieubray in Normandy in France.
He started as a salesman in Le Bon Marché in Paris, where he became a close friend of Ernest Cognacq, subsequently the founder of the Samaritaine department store.
Pigeon became a dealer in cycle lamps and other lamps. His invention and manufacture of the Pigeon lamp, a non-exploding gasoline lamp, in 1884 (exhibited at the Exposition universelle de 1900), made him famous and wealthy.

After his death he remains noted for his family grave in Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, which he commissioned in 1905 to hold up to 18 family members. The main feature is a life-sized bronze sculpture of Pigeon (notebook and pencil in hand) and his wife lying on a bed, overlooked by an angel, which had been illuminated by a lamp for many years by his custodians.

Maurice Lévy (February 28, 1838, in Ribeauvillé – September 30, 1910, in Paris) was a French engineer and member of the Institut de France.
Lévy was born in Ribeauvillé in Alsace. Educated at the École Polytechnique, where he was a student of Adhémar Jean Claude Barré de Saint-Venant, and the École des Ponts et Chaussées, he became an engineer in 1863. During the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), he was entrusted by the Government of National Defense with the control of part of the artillery. During the next decade he held several educational positions, becoming professor at the École Centrale in 1875, member of the commission of the geodetic survey of France in 1879, and professor at the Collège de France in 1885.

Abraham Kuhn (January 28, 1838 – September 15, 1900) was an Alsatian otolarynologist born in Bissersheim, Rhineland-Palatinate.
He studied under Anton von Tröltsch (1829–1890) at the University of Würzburg, then continued his education at the École de Médecine in Strasbourg. In 1870, he published his French translation of Tröltsch's Lehrbuch der Ohrenheilkunde, with the title Traité pratique des maladies de l'oreille.During the Franco-Prussian War he served with the Croix-Rouge (French Red Cross) on the battlefields of Wissembourg and Wörth. In 1873 he became a lecturer at the renamed Kaiser-Wilhelm-Universität in Strassburg, where in 1881 he was appointed associate professor of otolaryngology and director of the clinic of ear diseases. After his death, he was succeeded at Strassburg by Paul Manasse.During his career, Kuhn was one of only a handful of professors in Germany who specialized in the field of otology. Much of his scientific research dealt with comparative anatomy of the ear, in particular the labyrinth of the inner ear. He also made significant contributions on the diagnosis and treatment of ear tumors.

Colonel Nicolas Lebel (18 August 1838 – 6 May 1891), after whom the French military's Lebel rifle was named.

Nestor Louis François Gréhant (2 April 1838 in Laon – 26 March 1910) was a French physiologist.
In 1864 he received his medical doctorate in Paris, where he later earned a doctorate in natural sciences (1870). He served as a préparateur to Claude Bernard at the faculty of sciences in Paris, and subsequently became director of the laboratory of general physiology at the École pratique des Hautes Études. In Paris, he also served as a professor of physiology at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle. In 1905 he became a member of the Académie de médecine.He is best remembered for his studies of blood and blood circulation (measurement of cardiac output in animals) and respiration. He also made contributions in his research of the nervous system, of muscle activity, toxicology, anaesthesia and experimental hygiene. He developed a number of devices that he used in research, including a grisoumètre (firedamp detector) that was still in use in coal mines up until 1950.

Victor Desguin (French: [desgɛ̃]; 30 January 1838 – 8 July 1919) was a Belgian liberal politician.
He was a popular alderman of the city of Antwerp in charge of education and municipal schools at the end of the 19th century. He was twice acting mayor of Antwerp, but was never appointed mayor of the city.
Desguin was born on 30 January 1838. He became alderman of the city of Antwerp in 1892, responsible for education and schooling. He built libraries and schools.
He became acting mayor in 1906, when mayor Jan Van Rijswijck withdrew from office due to illness. Desguin was a member of the liberal party, and because of this, the Catholic government did not want him appointed as mayor. Instead Peter Hertogs became mayor.
When Peter Hertogs died in office in 1908, Desguin became acting mayor again, and for the second time somebody else became mayor instead of him. Jan De Vos was appointed mayor.
During the chaotic days of October 1914, Desguin organised the Antwerpsch Komiteit voor Hulp (Antwerp Relief Committee), a relief organisation for war victims.
Desguin never got the opportunity of becoming mayor; he died on 8 July 1919.

Jules Léotard (French: [leɔtaʁ]; 1 August 1838 – 16 August 1870) was a French acrobatic performer and aerialist who developed the art of trapeze. He also created and popularized the one-piece gym wear that now bears his name and inspired the 1867 song "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", sung by George Leybourne.

Louis Delacenserie (1838–1909) was a Belgian architect from Bruges. The spelling of his name differs greatly; De la Censerie, Delasencerie, Dela Censerie or Dela Sencerie are the most common alternative forms. His father was a merchant and building contractor from Tournai.
Delacenserie studied architecture at the Académie of his native city under Jean-Brunon Rudd (1792–1870). He was a laureate of the Prix de Rome in 1862. This prize enabled him to travel to Paris, Italy and Greece where he could admire masterpieces of antique architecture. After his studies, he worked for a while in the office of Louis Roelandt, architect to the city of Ghent who worked in the neoclassical style.
In his early career, he adopted the neoclassical style of his teachers. After he was appointed architect to the city of Bruges, he became involved in the Belgian Gothic Revival movement. He led many "restorations" of the rich Gothic architectural heritage of his native city. This made him familiar with the Gothic brick and sandstone architecture of medieval Flanders. Thanks to his profound knowledge of medieval architecture, he was able to imitate this historic style in all its details, although he often used new construction techniques and materials in his own original creations.
At the pinnacle of his career, Delacenserie made the designs for the Central Station in Antwerp. In this design he made use of a rather eclectic Neo-Renaissance style that refers to the economic and artistic prime of the city in the 16th century. Some aspects of this edifice, like the use of colours and materials, were clearly influenced by Art Nouveau architecture.

Sophie Stehle (15 May 1838 – 4 October 1921) was a German operatic soprano.
She was born in Sigmaringen and was a member of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich from 1860 to 1874. While there, she created the roles of Fricka in Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold on 22 September 1869 and Brünnhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre on 26 June 1870. She retired from the stage after marrying Baron Wilhelm von Knigge in 1874.