This happened on the basis of a decision by the International board commission of UNESCO Memory of the World, which approved a nomination presented by the National Technical Museum and the French CNC (Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée) and Émile Reynaud's granddaughter, Mrs. Josette Oudart-Reynaud. Along with other nominated objects belonging to Émile Reynaud's work and today stored in France (primarily additional praxinoscope rolls for the presentation Autour d’une Cabine a Pauvre Pierrot),

Émile Reynaud (1844-1918) was a French inventor and ranks among the leading figures developing public film projection, which gave birth to cinematography in general. In 1877 he submitted a patent application for his praxinoscope, which became an extremely popular childrens' toy. It's success in the marketplace secured Reynaud's financing of subsequent projects. In 1879-1880, he began building a new variation of the praxinoscope – an optical theater and projection praxinoscope. In 1888 he patented an improved projection praxinoscope – optical theater, which used long perforated paper rolls of 'film'. He selected a different method of distribution than for his previous machines. He began preparing public projections, a venue quite similar to modern movie theaters. On October 28th, 1892, Reynaud showed his first public projection in Musée Grévin, accompanied by original music of Gustav Paulin.

Émile Reynaud showed films that he made himself. Images hand-drawn and hand-colored on celluloid were glued between two paper strips, reinforced by thin sheet metal strips and edged with fabric. In the center of this strip assembly were perforated openings, which assured precise movement of the roll through the machine. Each roll was around 50 meters long. One showing consisted of three rolls, and took about 40 minutes to complete. By 1895, over 4000 such showing had been performed, However, after December 28^th, 1895, when the Lumiér brothers presented their first projector using celluloid film, attendance at the optical theater began to dwindle as popularity of the Lumiér system grew, and in 1900, Reynaud was forced to close his optical theater. This upset him so much that he deliberately wrecked all his equipment and threw his films into the Seine. Only a few fragments of the Pauvre Pierrot (1892) and Autour d’une Cabine (1894) were saved from destruction. One segment, consisting of 16 frames was donated in 1925 to the National Technical Museum by his son, Paul Reynaud, where it is preserved as a testament to man's ingenuity and perseverance.

Besides the original projection roll listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World, the National Technical Museum also has two praxinoscopes, advertising prospects for praxinoscopes, a painted background for Reynaud's optical theater and a copy of the notes for the musical accompaniment to Pauvre Pierrot.