He was the son of physician Alexandre Jacques François Bertrand (1795-1831) and elder brother to mathematician Joseph Louis François Bertrand (1822-1900).

Alexandre Bertrand studied at the École Normale Superieure, and later taught classes at the lycée in Laval (from 1848). In 1849 he became a member of the École française d'Athènes, and from 1851 to 1858, served as a professor of rhetoric at the lycée in Rennes.^[1]

Bertrand was a pioneer of Gallic and Gallo-Roman archaeology, and was involved in the archaeological dig at Alise-Sainte-Reine (1861/62). In 1864, with Louis Félicien de Saulcy, he directed excavations of burial mounds at Meloisey.^[1]

In 1862 he founded the Gallo-Roman museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, serving as its curator from 1867 until his death in 1902. Assisting him in this endeavor were Gabriel de Mortillet (1868 to 1885) and Salomon Reinach (1886 to 1902).^[1]

From 1882 he taught classes in archaeology at the École du Louvre.^[1] He was an editor of Revue Archeologique and a member of Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres.^[2]

• Études de mythologie et d'archéologie grecques, d'Athènes à Argos, 1858 - Studies of Greek mythology and archaeology of Athens and Argos.
• Archéologie celtique & gauloise, mémoires et documents relatifs aux premiers temps de notre histoire nationale, 1876 - Celtic and Gallic archaeology.
• La Gaule avant les Gaulois, 1891 - Gaul prior to the Gallic.
• Les Celtes dans les vallées du Po et du Danube, 1894 - Celtic people in the Po and Danube Valleys.

• Long list of publications associated with Bertrand at the equivalent article of the French Wikipedia.

• Works by or about Alexandre Bertrand at Internet Archive
• Works by Alexandre-Louis-Joseph-Bertrand at Open Library