History

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.

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

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

Very soon, if not already, Christmas decorations will adorn our neighborhood homes and stores. Among the holly, stockings and blow-up Santa Clauses, you may find a few Nativity scenes. It’s a common sight, but do you know its origin?

Chances are if you live in New Orleans, you’ve spent time in Lakeview, an area named for its proximity to Lake Pontchartrain. Officially, Lakeview’s boundaries are defined as Lakeshore Drive, Orleans Avenue, City Park Avenue and the Jefferson Parish line.

You can still visit America’s first monument to WWI soldiers here in New Orleans.

Every year on All Saints’ Day, New Orleanians head to cemeteries to beautify the graves of the departed. Early Americans took this a step further by holding on to actual pieces of loved ones: their hair.

Here’s a challenge for you: Can you guess the current names of these streets?

Can you imagine New Orleans without The French Quarter? That was almost the case in the early 1900s, when people considered leveling portions of the city’s oldest district and starting anew.

Starting today, The Historic New Orleans Collection will resurrect the Halloween-themed tour of its Louisiana History Galleries. “Danse Macabre: The Nightmare of History” draws from grisly topics like colonial-era executions, cemetery relocation, serial killers and more to unveil some of the more frightful, but true, aspects of local lore.

New Orleans has given the world some pretty notable inventions over the last 300 years. Check out these famous firsts:

Most people don’t look for hidden pictures on the edges of books, but years ago “fore-edge paintings” were an elegant embellishment to printed works.

Few attractions excite the local memory like former lakefront amusement park Pontchartrain Beach. But, when was the park opened to all?

On July 28, the Christian Brothers celebrated 100 years of continuous ministry in Louisiana with a mass at St. Louis Cathedral followed by a gala party aboard the Steamboat Natchez and an exhibition preview party at the Old Ursuline Convent Museum.

Though New Orleans is affectionately nicknamed the “City that Care Forgot,” we do care a whole lot about our cocktails. So much so that we offer a daily Cocktail Tour.

Once a resort destination for wealthy 19th century New Orleanians, the Northshore became renowned for the healing powers of its ozone waters. For decades, tourists flocked to bathe in “the cure,” as it was dubbed during one yellow fever outbreak.

With 300 years of rich culture, New Orleans has played an important role in America’s history. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States secured the port of New Orleans and surrounding area, doubling the size of the U.S. at that time.

Marianne Brion Dubreuil and her family made their mark on New Orleans’ 300-year history. Of African descent, Marianne Dubreuil was born in 1735 and emancipated in 1772. As a successful businesswoman, she accumulated valuable real estate over her lifetime.

Ever wondered the origin of the colloquial NOLA phrase, “makin’ groceries”? While this expression has long been a part of New Orleans’ 300-year history, Schwegmann’s grocery store capitalized on it in a 1980s commercial jingle, “Saving money, with a smile/Makin’ groceries, Schwegmann style.”

International dignitaries recently gathered to celebrate New Orleans’ Tricentennial. Our then mayor, Mitch Landrieu, said, “There is nothing stoic about New Orleans. It’s all rhythm, all music, all the time.”

In 1876, Father Peter Leonard Thevis promised God that if his parishioners were spared from the yellow fever epidemic, he would build a chapel. Today, the chapel in St. Roch Cemetery stands as a testament to God’s providence and a promise kept.

Did you know that the $200 New Orleans Bank note once bore the image of St. Louis Cathedral? If asked, could you answer, “What exactly is Creole?” What if we told you that some of the oldest parishes in the Archdiocese of New Orleans aren’t actually in New Orleans?

One of the most popular resources at The Historic New Orleans Collection is the Collins C. Dibbol Vieux Carré Digital Survey, which offers information on every block of the city’s oldest neighborhood, the French Quarter. This complimentary online resource includes maps, site plans, property records, photographs and more.

If you missed “Making New Orleans Home: A Tricentennial Symposium,” presented by the 2018 New Orleans Tricentennial Commission, you can still explore some of the topics with help from The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) and its exhibition and companion catalog, “New Orleans, the Founding Era.”

The architect of New Orleans’ first city hall was born in Ireland as James Gallagher but changed his name to sound more “French” in 1834 when he arrived in NOLA. He, along with many other immigrants, sought to assimilate into the French culture.