First Draft
Stories from the Historic New Orleans Collection
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Glasnost Menagerie
Even while denigrating his work, Soviet reviewers set the stage for Tennessee Williams’s popularity in Russia.
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Glasnost Menagerie
Even while denigrating his work, Soviet reviewers set the stage for Tennessee Williams’s popularity in Russia.
Independence Won
An interactive exhibition immerses visitors in the events of the American Revolution, including Louisiana’s role in the conflict.
Tremé’s Homegrown Historian
Founder Al Jackson’s scholarship and personal history come together in Treme’s Petit Jazz Museum.
Who’s a Good Boy? These Pups from the Past
For as long as dogs have been domesticated, there have been dog lovers. The evidence runs throughout HNOC’s holdings.
“One of the Great Literary Curiosities” of French Quarter Bohemia Turns 100
With a foreword by William Faulkner and clever portrait drawings, Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles is an offbeat who’s-who of 1920s New Orleans.
Joan of Arc: Maid of (New) Orleans
Every year, New Orleans kicks off Carnival season with a parade in honor of Joan of Arc. But what is her historical connection to Louisiana?
Views of the Vieux Carré
An HNOC exhibition showcases a diverse selection of paintings that reflect the unique character of New Orleans’s French Quarter.
Death on Display
Louisiana’s travelling electric chair, and the shift from public to private executions
Cataloging Every Item in the Williams Residence, from Spoons to Sofas
During the renovation of 533 Royal Street, staff are working to clean and create records for all of our founders’ furnishings—some 3,000 objects in total.
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Cajuns & Creoles
Sally Miller or Salomé Müller?
An enslaved woman named Sally Miller went to the Louisiana Supreme Court to sue for her freedom. She won, then she was forgotten.
Identity Theft
Nearly 35 years ago, a heedless conservator altered a rare portrait of a free woman of color. Now, it has been restored and is on view again—and this time, HNOC is telling the story.
What’s the Difference Between Cajun and Creole—Or Is There One?
The answers are tied up in race, class, language, and, of course, history.
New Orleans Icons
Richard Simmons, New Orleans’s Hometown Hero
How a native son who grew up in the French Quarter sweated his way into the spotlight
Shades of Blanche
An experimental theater production sheds new light on one of Tennessee Williams’s most beloved characters.
Danny Barker’s Folk Heroes
The jazzman was also a gifted writer and storyteller who put his own spin on the archetypes of African American folklore, from badmen and blues mamas to “day people and night people.”
Carnival Chronicles
DJ Soul Sister’s Personal Mardi Gras Playlist
In liner notes to a playlist curated for HNOC, the “Queen of Rare Groove” leads a tour through Mardi Gras music history, drawing on her memories as a New Orleans native.
The Renaissance Man Who Changed Mardi Gras
Before he became the father of the Carnival doubloon, H. Alvin Sharpe was a sailor, maker, prospector, and poet.
Carnival Couture
Eight Mardi Gras fashion designs inspired by history, pop culture, and even architecture
North Side Skull and Bone Gang: “You Next!”
Bruce Sunpie Barnes, big chief of the North Side Skull and Bone Gang, describes a Mardi Gras Black masking tradition.
The Defiance of New Orleans’s Black Debutante Tradition
The debutante circuit was once the province of whites only, until Black New Orleanians found their own way to hold court.
The Breadth of Carnival Artistry in Nine Photographs
Snapshots of Carnival through photographic history, from Mardi Gras Indian big chiefs to ‘Tit Rex
How to Catch Beads during Mardi Gras (No, Not That Way)
In a charming DIY pamphlet from 1969, one Carnivalgoer gives humorous tips for how to survive and thrive during Mardi Gras.
HNOC Quarterly
Our members-only magazine, full of pretty pictures, interesting articles, and inside info
New Orleans Stories,
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