Droz has been described as a "man of progress" and "one of Switzerland's major political figures".[3]
He was appointed by Swiss Government for presiding the ALAI conferences following of which the Berne Convention for the protection of literary and artistic works was concluded in 1886. "Numa Droz was an admirable choice for this role from the point of view of authors, as he had a strong interest in copyright matters, and had, in an article ... declared himself in favour of an international convention on literary and artistic property." He was to play a crucial role in the realization of the final convention. In 1898, he suggested a railway over the Bernina Pass which eventually was to be completed after his death.[4]
In La Chaux-de-Fonds a street (rue Numa-Droz, the longest in the town) and in Neuchâtel a square (place Numa-Droz) are named after him. A statue by Charles l'Eplattenier which was erected by the station is at present being renovated and will be placed on Rue Numa-Droz in the autumn of 2012.
Works
Numa Droz, Souvenirs d'un vieux montagnard. Histoire d'un proscrit de 1793. Nouvelle neuchâteloise, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Imprimerie du National suisse, 1869
Numa Droz, Instruction civique : manuel à l'usage des écoles primaires supérieures, des écoles secondaires, des écoles complémentaires et des jeunes citoyens, Lausanne, D. Lebet, 1884
Numa Droz, Études et portraits politiques, C. Eggimann (Genève), F. Alcan (Paris), 1895
Numa Droz, Le rachat des chemins de fer suisses, Bâle et Genève, Georg, 1898
Numa Droz, Essais économiques, Genève, C. Eggimann, 1906
The Numa Droz collection is conserved in the State Archives of Neuchâtel. It contains documents about his privacy and documents of different fields of research.
