Anthropologist and archaeologist Ernest Chantre, trained by Paul Broca and Gabriel de Mortillet, was appointed a correspondent of the Commission de Topographie des Gaules in 1870. Between 1873 and 1888, with Émile Cartailhac, he edited the collection Matériaux pour l'histoire primitive et naturelle de l'Homme. In 1891, he became a non-resident member of the CTHS. He was also a professor of ethnology and deputy director of the Muséum de Lyon.

In 1904, he was one of the founding members of the Société préhistorique française.