The history of the marine station of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, from its creation on the island of Tatihou, off Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, to its present existence as the Research and Education Center on coastal systems in Dinard, through the facilities in Saint-Servan, sheds a new light on the constitution of the algae herbarium of Dinard. The content of this herbarium reveals a representation of the history of people and concepts in over 200 years of phycological researches in this area of Normano Breton Gulf. Such an understanding now makes possible to consider interpreting data in the frame of temporal changes in algal communities.