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By studying how the Palace of Versailles was transformed into a museum during the July Monarchy, this article examines to what extent a historical remembrance policy helped to legitimise the political regime and naturalise the concept of the nation state. Investigating how such a commemorative policy was formulated through exchanges between state sectors and familial and professional groups, this article argues that the museum was a kind of rallying call, emitted by the regime to the country’s elites. In turn, these actors took ownership of nation’s past and proclaimed its value in everyday social spaces and interactions which had otherwise little to do with the state or its history. In this regard, civic and national imaginaries were strengthened, thanks to their ability to bring together other groups than the nation-state.