History

Inevitably, the promise of a new year leads to reflections of the past. For The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2019 was full of milestones: the opening of its third (and largest) campus, the retirement of a longtime president, the start of a new president’s tenure, and that was within the first six months! 

The Historic New Orleans Collection was founded by Leila and Kemper Williams, whose elegantly renovated French Quarter home brimmed with high style of the mid-20th century.

It is easy to name great athletes in New Orleans history, but while Louis Armstrong is among the city’s favorite sons, you probably wouldn’t put him in the local sports hall of fame.

Next Wednesday, Nov. 20, the nominees will be announced for the 62nd  annual Grammy Awards.

Before his role as Dr.

Inspired by The Historic New Orleans Collection’s upcoming symposium on wine, we set out to make a classic vino-infused recipe from Lafcadio Hearn’s groundbreaking cookbook “La Cuisine Créole.”

In Chalmette, the De La Ronde ruins are what remain of the home that served as a military hospital for the British during the Battle of New Orleans.  Recent efforts are breathing new life into the site by the Denis De La Ronde Preservation Corporation.

City of New Orleans. (THNOC, gift of the City of New Orleans, 2019.0340) 

A couple of issues ago, we brought you  the story of an iron pipe removed from beneath Bourbon Street. That was a pretty cool find, but now we’ve got one to top it: a wooden pipe from New Orleans’ first waterworks.

If you are a certain age, you know Louis Prima’s songs and wild onstage antics from TV or Las Vegas. If you’re younger, you know his songs recorded by other artists, in TV commercials or as the swingin’ voice of King Louie in Disney’s “The Jungle Book.”

If good things come in small packages, great things arrive in big, rusty, muddy pipes.

Calvin Dayes came to the United States in 1949 as a Jamaican-born stowaway with $38 in his pocket. But, a long career as one of New Orleans’ most-respected cobblers put him at the center of local life.

You may think that rats are a nuisance now, but back in 1914, their presence in New Orleans was dire.

Fifty years ago, the world watched as two Americans set foot on the lunar surface. It seems like an otherworldly feat, but the journey to moon and back passed right through the Gulf Coast.

As visitors enter The Historic New Orleans Collection’s new welcome center at 520 Royal St., they’ll find something unique among its spaces: a seven-foot, three-dimensional touchscreen smart table, titled “French Quarter at Your Fingertips.”

In 1928, Audubon Park in New Orleans opened a public pool so massive it was called the largest in the South and the second-largest in the country.

Does your teenager frequent libraries, binge-watch documentaries and constantly have their nose in a history book? If so, you have a problem: They could be a history nerd!

The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Portage Bike Roll returned this month as part of the exhibition “Art of the City: Postmodern to Post-Katrina,” presented by The Helis Foundation.

To celebrate the opening of its much-anticipated museum expansion, The Historic New Orleans Collection is hosting a block party April 7 from 1 to 5 p.m.

Second lines and brass bands are among our city’s musical staples, but did you know that a traditional jazz funeral consists of two parts?

Mother’s Day is an action-packed time for small businesses in the retail industry. With so many competing businesses vying for the attention of consumers buying presents for their loved one, how do you cut through the clutter? Here are three ways to do it:

Is your Mardi Gras costume ready?

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the loss of a local landmark, which was particularly connected to Carnival history: the French Opera House. Built at Bourbon and Toulouse Streets in 1859, it was the center of the city’s cultural life for more than 60 years.

Historians have identified at least 50 sites in downtown New Orleans associated with the slave trade, but despite the pervasiveness of the trade, few permanent reminders of its enormous impact on the city existed until recently.

If you grew up in Louisiana, chances are you knew someone named Sue Ellen, Sarah Jane or Mary Margaret. Double names are very common in the South, but have you ever wondered how they came to be?

With the Tricentennial behind us, The Historic New Orleans Collection’s staff took a look back at the year and highlighted 14 moments and discoveries from 2018.

Morgus the Magnificent, aka Dr. Momus Alexander Morgus, first let cameras into his lab above the old city ice house on Jan. 3, 1959. The program featured news of his experiments and inventions wrapped around segments of horror movies.

As we celebrate New Orleans’ Tricentennial, we would be remiss not to acknowledge the influential people who’ve shaped our city’s past and are working toward the development of its future. President and CEO of New Orleans Tourism Marketing Corporation Mark Romig was chosen as the recipient of the 2019 Ella Brennan Lifetime Achievement in Hospitality Award.

After the end of the Civil War, formerly enslaved people began seeking out family members separated by the slave trade.

The Crescent City and pecans have long been linked. The sweet, creamy, French confection known as a praline first gained American fame in New Orleans, when almonds were substituted for native Louisiana pecans. Soon the praline became a Southern hallmark treat.

Did you know Nov. 27 is Pie in the Face Day? Neither did we.