Erin M. Greenwald, curator of “New Orleans, the Founding Era,” discusses the exhibition, which is on view at The Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St. in the French Quarter, through Sunday, May 27.
New Orleans’s Tricentennial is a fitting time to reflect on how the land Bienville called “la Nouvelle-Orléans” — a site originally settled by Native Americans, though long abandoned and considered inhospitable as a permanent settlement —transformed into one of North America’s most diverse cities.
The Historic New Orleans Collection invites you to explore the array of cultures that shaped the city through “New Orleans, the Founding Era.” The no-cost exhibition features rare artifacts, maps, archaeological finds and art from THNOC’s holdings and 19 other institutions across Europe and North America, telling the stories of the city’s earliest days.
– Teresa Devlin, The Historic New Orleans Collection