Shop online at www.hnoc.org/shop

VOLUME X X XII I

NUMBER 4

FALL 2016

The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

PURCHASE POWER: New Orleans, Shopping Destination

E X H I B I T I O N S & T O U R SE V E N T C A L E N D A R

GENERAL HOURS533 Royal Street Williams Gallery, Louisiana History Galleries, Shop, and ToursTuesday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

All exhibitions are free unless noted otherwise.

CURRENT

Money, Money, Money! Currency Holdings from The Historic New Orleans CollectionThrough October 29, 2016 Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street

The Seignouret-Brulatour House: A New ChapterThrough June 2018533 Royal Street

Themed tours of the Louisiana History GalleriesFirst Friday of every month, through 201610 and 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.50¢

PERMANENT

Louisiana History Galleries533 Royal StreetTuesday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.Sunday, 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

The Williams Residence TourArchitecture and Courtyard Tour533 Royal StreetTuesday–Saturday, 10 and 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.Sunday, 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.$5 admission; free for THNOC membersGroups of eight or more should call (504) 598-7145 or visit www.hnoc.org to make reservations.Educational tours for school groups are available free of charge; please contact Daphne L. Derven, curator of education, at (504) 598-7154 or daphned@hnoc.org.

UPCOMING

Goods of Every Description: Shopping in New Orleans, 1825–1925September 23, 2016–April 9, 2017 Williams Gallery, 533 Royal Street

Clarence John Laughlin and His Contemporaries: A Picture and a Thousand Words November 15, 2016–March 25, 2017Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street

Holiday Home and Courtyard TourDecember 1–30; closed December 24–25Tuesday–Saturday, 10 and 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.Sunday, 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.$5 admission; free for THNOC members

CONCERTS IN THE COURTYARD The fall concert series features Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters (September), the Tumbling Wheels (October), and Colin Lake Band (November). Admission includes three complimentary drinks.

Fridays, September 16, October 21, and November 18, 5:30–8 p.m.

533 Royal Street

$10; free for THNOC members

DIANE GENRE BOOK SIGNING Diane Genre, a contributor to the new release Re-envisioning Japan: Meiji Fine Art Textiles (5 Continents Editions, 2016), will talk about her collection of antique Japanese textiles and sign copies of the book.

Saturday, October 8, 2–4 p.m.

533 Royal Street

Free

CURRENCY COLLECTING IN THE 21ST CENTURYJoin THNOC Curator/Historian Erin M. Greenwald for a discussion about the history of currency and currency collecting in Louisiana. Greenwald will speak with collector Randy Haynie, who has spent more than 50 years amassing one of the largest currency collections in the state, and longtime dealer Stephen Cohen, of the venerable French Quarter antiques shop James H. Cohen and Sons. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Money, Money, Money! Currency Holdings from The Historic New Orleans Collection.

Saturday, October 15, 10 a.m.–noon

Williams Research Center, 410 Chartres Street

Free; for reservations, email wrc@hnoc.org.

PEGGY SCOTT LABORDE BOOK SIGNING Join us for an afternoon with WYES-TV personality Peggy Scott Laborde as she signs her new book, The Fair Grounds through the Lens: Photographs and Memories of Horse Racing in New Orleans (Pelican, 2016).

Saturday, November 5, 2–4 p.m.

533 Royal Street

Free

MIGNON FAGET TRUNK SHOW AND THNOC MEMBER APPRECIATION DAYJust in time for the holiday season, members can take 20 percent off all items available in The Shop at The Collection, while enjoying a look at special selections from jewelry designer Mignon Faget. Not a member? You can sign up in the shop.

Saturday, December 10, 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m.

533 Royal Street

400 and 410 Chartres Street Williams Research Center, Boyd Cruise Gallery, and Laura Simon Nelson Galleries Tuesday–Saturday, 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

F R O M T H E D I R E C T O R

C O N T E N T S

O N V I E W / 2

A new exhibition traces the evolution of retail in New Orleans.

Off-Site

P R O G R A M S / 5

Study tours take THNOC members around the world.

R E S E A R C H / 6

A 2015 Woest Fellow focuses on the legal and financial systems underpinning slavery.

T H N O C A T 5 0 / 8

Themed tours of the Louisiana History Galleries put old artifacts in a new light.

C O M M U N I T Y / 12

On the Job

Staff News

In Memoriam

Become a Member

On the Scene

Focus on Philanthropy

Donors

A C Q U I S I T I O N S / 20

Acquisition Spotlight: The Harold F. Baquet Archive

Recent Additions

ON THE COVER

A. B. Griswold & Co. advertisementfrom Jewell’s Crescent City Illustrated New Orleans, 18741951.41.23

In mid-June The Collection was honored to acquire the photographic archive of Harold F. Baquet, who documented African American life and New Orleans politics and culture for decades. We are grateful to his widow, Cheron Brylski, for making possible this landmark accession; Baquet’s large archive, consisting of thousands of negatives, slides, and photographs, marks our first major collection by an African American photographer. A preview of the Baquet archive can be found on pages 20–21, and we look forward to processing the collection and making it available to researchers as soon as possible.

The summer also provided us with another successful New Orleans Antiques Forum, which seems to grow in popularity and enthusiasm among participants every year. In celebration of our golden anniversary, docents continued their series of monthly themed tours of the Louisiana History Galleries—admission: 50 cents, for 50 years—and I look forward to seeing what spotlights they shine on our artifacts this fall.

Despite our gains and celebrations over the summer, The Collection suffered a tremendous loss with the death of Mimi Calhoun, our longtime friend and colleague. Facilities manager for many years, Mimi saw her work expand as we did, growing from our first location on Royal Street to include the research center and galleries on Chartres Street and additional properties in the French Quarter. She was always up to the challenge, and she served The Collection as steadfastly as she did her many friends here. —PRISCILLA LAWRENCE

As a major metropolis from the late 18th century to today, New Orleans has always had a strong tradition of retail activity fueled by international goods and wares. At the center of a crisscrossing network of global trade routes, the city was a cosmopolitan shopping destination in the 19th and early 20th centuries, with shopwindows displaying treasures from around the world. Swaths of textiles, crates of ceramics, parlor suites, elaborate silver services, and dressed mannequins all provided the burgeoning consumer class with models of style.

New Orleans’s retail activity was complemented by related industries. In the early 19th century, several silversmiths and goldsmiths, or orfèvres, practiced in the French Quarter. Some of these craftsmen made regular trips across the Atlantic to acquire merchandise and study the latest trends to reproduce for their local customers. European styles and wares also came to the city through china importers on Chartres and Canal Streets, who filled their windows with colorful transfer-printed earthenware and sleek porcelain dishes that had just arrived on ships from New York; Staffordshire, England; and Le Havre, France.

By the mid-19th century, the first blocks of Royal Street were designated “Furniture Row.” Store after store offered parlor suites, beds, dining sets, carpets, curtains, mirrors,

2 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

O N V I E W

EXHIBITION

Goods of Every Description: Shopping in New Orleans, 1825–1925

September 23, 2016–April 9, 2017

Williams Gallery, 533 Royal Street

Free

A. Postcard depicting interior of E. Offner’sca. 1910gift of Charles L. Mackie, 1981.317

B. M. Waldhorn trade cardca. 189556-12-L

C. Baby cupbetween 1853 and 1861; coin silverby Adolphe Himmel (New Orleans)Hyde & Goodrich, retailer (New Orleans)1978.175.17

Retail on the RiseIn Goods of Every Description, THNOC explores the history of shopping in New Orleans.

and miscellaneous “fancy goods” in the latest Victorian styles, which were largely revivals of earlier rococo, Gothic, and Elizabethan styles. Retailers such as Prudent Mallard, William McCracken, and Henry Siebrecht received constant shipments of furniture from manufactur-ers in New York, Boston, Cincinnati, and France to fill their warehouses. They employed craftsmen to assemble, upholster, and install new furniture, curtains, and wallpaper for their customers in the city and up the river, but very few of their goods were actually made in New Orleans.

A

C

B

Fall 2016 3

D. Women’s fashion display window at D. H. Holmes1916; gelatin silver printby Charles L. Franck PhotographersThe Charles L. Franck Studio Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection,1979.325.1

E. B. T. Walshe advertisement1870; lithographby Marie Adrien Persac, draftsman; Benedict Simon, lithographer1949.1.28

F. Antiques: A Rare Collection from Old Creole FamiliesNew Orleans: Boudousquie Print, between 1905 and 191088-495-RL

After the Civil War, large plate-glass shopwindows along Canal Street were dedicated to glittering luxuries. Local newspapers reported on the diamond jewelry, marble statues, regulated clocks, patented pistols, and specialty china and silver services that filled the best windows. Retailers competed with each other to have the most impressive objects on view: when one jeweler displayed a miniature fire engine as a prize for a local fair, another made a true-to-life silver and gold model of the mule-drawn streetcars that traveled up and down Canal Street. Silver retailers, including Hyde & Goodrich and their succes-sors A. B. Griswold & Co., E. A. Tyler, and M. Schooler, employed craftsmen to handle custom orders, which they sold alongside the popular silver patterns produced by northern manufacturers. China emporiums up the street were filled with all types of fancy and plain ceramics, available to shoppers at any price point.

At the turn of the 20th century, department stores became the anchors of the shop-ping district on Canal Street. Many of these large stores—with departments dedicated to women’s clothing, men’s furnishings, toys, stationery, and “bric-a-brac”—got their start as dry goods stores. Daniel Henry Holmes started his dry goods business on Chartres Street before moving to Canal Street in 1849, and D. H. Holmes became one of the most popular department stores in the city. Leon Godchaux began selling dry goods from a peddler’s cart in the 1840s, and within two decades he had a thriving furnishings store, Godchaux’s, selling ready-made clothing for men and children. In 1892 Godchaux’s moved into a new “skyscraper-style” store near the corner of Canal and Chartres Streets and began expand-ing its merchandise to include women’s clothing and household items. A few years later, S. J. Shwartz, with help from his father-in-law, Isidore Newman, expanded his dry goods business into a grand, white building—the Maison Blanche, which was purpose-built to house an extensive assortment of new goods, laid out in separate departments throughout the store.

At the same time, old furnishings gained value in the antiques stores that were estab-lished on Royal Street beginning in 1881. These stores, such as Waldhorn’s, Keil’s, and Manheim’s, carried on the legacy of shopping established by earlier purveyors. To meet local demands, they imported antiques from France and the northeast, selling them along-side heirloom pieces that had originally been purchased on the shopping thoroughfares of old New Orleans. —LYDIA BLACKMORE

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4 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

O N V I E W

OFF-SITE

Sharing Jules Cahn’s New OrleansOur quarterly roundup of holdings that have appeared outside The Collection, either on loan to other institutions or reproduced in noteworthy media projects.

New York public television station WNET reproduced one photograph for an upcoming re-release of the 2004 documentary series Slavery and the Making of America.

Negro Washerwomanca. 1855; photographby George François Mugniergift of Allan Phillip Jaffe, 1981.324.1.242

The Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, borrowed one painting for its exhibi-tion The World of Rolland Golden, on view through October 30, 2016.

Elysian Fields—Land of the Gods 2006; acrylic on canvasby Rolland Goldenacquisition made possible by the Diana Helis Henry Art Fund of The Helis Foundation; joint ownership with the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Fund, 2008.0109.5

New Orleans’s Longue Vue House and Gardens features several THNOC artworks in its current show on silhouettes, Shadow Pictures, on view through October 19, 2016.

THNOC entered into an agreement with Historic Films for licensing of the Jules Cahn Collection. The films will be available for documentarians and researchers to view on the Historic Films website, in low-resolution, watermarked clips. This agreement will allow Cahn’s body of work, which captured on film the street parades, festivals, Mardi Gras Indians, and other cultural treasures of New Orleans from the 1950s through the mid-1990s, to reach an even wider audience.

Silhouette of the Robert Young Family of Natchez, Mississippi1844; cut paper on sepia with watercolor, mounted on fabricby Auguste Edouart1983.12

Silhouette of Henry Clay1844; mixed mediaby Auguste Edouart1951.45.2

Stills from footage of Mardi Gras Day 19701970; 16-millimeter filmby Jules L. CahnThe Jules Cahn Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection, 2000.78.4.17

Fall 2016 5

Left to right: Raymond Rathlé, Alfred E. Lemmon, Mike Sullivan, E. Alexandra Stafford, Susannah Morrison, Karen Sullivan, Bryant Blevins, Wendy Hall, Priscilla Lawrence, Betsie Gambel, Edwin Beckman, Thomas Jayne, Azby Brown, Barbara Beckman, Catherine Whitney, Rick Ellis, Julie Jardine, Drew Jardine, Whitney Steve, Linda Sarpy, John Sarpy, John H. Lawrence, Courtney-Anne Sarpy, and Lou Hoffman. Not pictured: Bonnie and John Boyd and Nemo Glassman.

From the Big Easy to the Far EastTHNOC’s study tours have taken history lovers around the world. WRC Director Alfred E. Lemmon shares a postcard from the most recent trip.

Early one rainy April morning in Tokyo, an adventuresome group from Louisiana, California, Florida, Maryland, New York, and North Carolina assembled to begin a visit to the neighboring town of Kamakura. On arrival, the group ventured up the great hill of Genjiyama for a special visit with antiquarian Yoshihiro Takishita. A visionary pres-ervationist, he has devoted his life to the beauty and craftsmanship of the traditional agrarian dwelling known as minka. At a time when many were advocating that they be demolished, he recognized the architectural value of these wooden farmhouses and

P R O G R A M S

STUDY TOURS

For information about upcoming regional and international trips, visit www.hnoc.org/programs/tours.html.

went on to rescue and repurpose more than 30 of them. Takishita graciously served tea, lectured about his work with minka, and led a tour of the residence, carefully pointing out architectural features and precious antiques.

Such out-of-the-way activities were nothing new for most of the Japanese sojourners. Established in 2000, The Collection’s study tours program has developed a devoted group of participants who travel to different parts of the world to learn of New Orleans’s rich international heritage. All the trips are united by the theme of exploring Louisiana’s origins, from Nova Scotia to Alsace-Lorraine to the Cahokia Mounds of Missouri. The stage for this extraor-dinary tour series was set in its inaugural year, when Arnaud d’Hauterives of France’s l’Académie des Beaux-Arts hosted a reception for tour participants at l’Institut de France, one of Paris’s most treasured institutions. The following year, rarely seen draw-ings and documents of 18th-century New Orleans, held in the famed Archive of the Indies in Seville, Spain, were displayed especially for the group. And so the list continues: participants have enjoyed visits to the Treaty Room of France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Montreal museum and historic site Maison Saint-Gabriel, homes of Acadian ancestors on Brittany’s Belle-Île, and ancestral homes of New Orleans notables Andrés Almonester y Roxas, Père Antoine, Bernardo de Gálvez, Andrew Jackson, and Edward Pakenham. They have been welcomed by the descendants of New Orleans furniture maker François Seignouret and of Jean-Charles de Pradel, a founding resident of New Orleans.

In addition to touring Takishita’s minka, the Japan group explored the 1,200-year-old Yakushiji monastery in Nara with New Orleans native Azby Brown, an architect and designer who highlighted recent restoration work. In Matsue, where writer Lafcadio Hearn lived, the group dined with the city’s mayor, Masataka Matsuura, and visited with Hearn’s great-grandson Bon Koizumi, who poignantly spoke of his forebear’s life in Japan and New Orleans. Throughout the journey, participants found links between New Orleans and Japan, from broad interests such as botany, seafood, and craftsmanship to surpris-ingly specific connections, such as the concept of lagniappe. Both the Japanese and New Orleanians have a word meaning “a little something extra”—in Japan, it’s the French term plus alpha—knowledge of which was lagniappe itself for the group. —ALFRED E. LEMMON

6 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

One Thread in the Web of SlaveryJoshua Rothman, one of THNOC’s 2015 Woest Fellows, examines the legal and financial transactions undergirding the institution of slavery.

Unique among states before the Civil War, Louisiana required every legal sale and purchase of an enslaved person to be recorded by a notary. That provision enables researchers today to understand Louisiana’s markets in enslaved people with a richness and depth impossible to attain elsewhere. On a broad scale, the notarial records also reveal the extent to which slavery remained a profoundly multinational and multicultural insti-tution long after the transatlantic slave trade closed. In fact, as I found during my research at The Historic New Orleans Collection, sometimes that complexity can be found within a single document and a single transaction.

On December 7, 1830, Isaac Franklin welcomed Francisco de Lizardi into his office, in a rented house on the corner of Esplanade and Frenchmen Streets in Faubourg Marigny. The two men talked business, came to an agreement, and then walked to the Chartres Street office of notary Hugues Pedesclaux. There, they completed and registered the sale of an enslaved man named Andrew. Franklin, a native of Tennessee and one of the most prominent slave traders in the South, had purchased Andrew just three weeks earlier, along with 74 other people, from an itinerant Maryland trader named John Brown Johnson. Now Franklin sold Andrew to Lizardi for $650 cash. Lizardi, meanwhile,

R E S E A R C H

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was making the purchase not on his own behalf but rather as a representative of the com- mission merchant firm in which he was a partner, named in Pedesclaux’s notarial act as “Lizzardi y Hermanos.” The Lizardi brothers—Francisco, Miguel, and Manuel—were sig- nificant players in trans atlantic banking and trade. Of Spanish descent and originally from Cuba, the Lizardi brothers had offices in Havana, London, Paris, and New Orleans by 1830, and they would soon buy the Merieult House, the French Quarter property that now anchors The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Royal Street campus.

It is unknown what Francisco de Lizardi did with Andrew after he purchased him. Perhaps

Joshua Rothman

Fall 2016 7

he used him as a personal servant or had him work at one of the numerous proper-ties the firm owned in the city. Lizardi and his brothers were also proprietors of several sugar plantations in the parishes, and he may have sent Andrew to labor on one of them. Lizardi may have simply been acting as a middleman, making a purchase for a planter or an industrialist whom the firm served as a business agent.

There was nothing unusual about the transaction between Franklin and Lizardi. The sale of Andrew was just one of tens of thousands conducted in New Orleans in the 19th century. Nevertheless, what stands out is how brilliantly the notarial act recording the sale—a copy of which can be found in THNOC’s Slavery in Louisiana Collection (MSS 44)—encapsulates the global, cultural, and financial reach of New Orleans and the slave trade before the Civil War. Here was a man of African descent brought to New Orleans by an Anglo trader from Maryland. There, he was purchased by a second Anglo trader from Tennessee, who in turn sold that man to a partner in a merchant firm that had offices and business interests strewn across the Atlantic world. That partner had a Basque surname, and a notary recorded the name of his firm in Spanish. The notary was himself a Creole and often wrote his notarial acts in French.

The domestic slave trade is often viewed as a phenomenon contained by the bound-aries of the United States, one that sprung up to replace the importations from Africa during the colonial and early national periods. In truth, slavery remained an institution that transcended national borders. Andrew, like many other enslaved individuals, was entangled in webs of economic production and trade that continued to stretch around the world. —JOSHUA ROTHMAN

A. Isaac Franklin1844 or 1845; oil on canvasby Washington Bogart Coopercourtesy of Belmont Mansion, Nashville, Tennessee

B. Act of sale of Andrew, aged 25, by Isaac Franklin of Sumner County, Tennessee, to Lizzardi y Hermanos of New OrleansDecember 7, 183060-26-L.28

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FEBRUARY

Carnival TimeIn addition to popular Carnival ephemera such as Rex ducal decorations and ball invitations, this festive tour also spotlighted Mardi Gras practices predating the mid-19th-century formation of krewes. Marc-Antoine Caillot’s memoir describes a masquerade held the eve of Fat Tuesday 1730 on the banks of Bayou St. John, an opportunity for the young clerk to dress as a “shepherdess in white . . . with plenty of beauty marks.” Less indulgent of local pleasure seeking was William Charles Cole Claiborne, first American governor of Louisiana, whose miniature portrait hangs in the History Galleries. Claiborne despaired over New Orleanians’ relentless pursuit of dancing, particularly during Carnival. As he lamented in a letter to Secretary of State James Madison, “The public Ball room has been the theatre of all the disorders.”

8 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

T H N O C A T 5 0

Variations on a ThemeIn February docents introduced monthly themed tours of the Louisiana History Galleries, to continue throughout THNOC’s 50th-anniversary year. It is only fitting that The Collection’s longest-running, permanent exhibition should anchor so many different narratives, showcasing the myriad ways that THNOC connects visitors to lessons from the past.

William Charles Cole Claiborneca. 1805; oil on ivoryby Ambroise Duvalgift of Mrs. Alfred Grima and Omer Villere Claiborne, 1975.142

Ball invitation, Krewe of Rex1875; color lithograph1960.14.70

Examen des droits des États-Unis et des prétentions de Mr. Edouard Livingston sur la batture en face du faubourg Ste. Marie [Consideration of the rights of the United States and claims of Mr. Edward Livingston concerning the shore in front of the St. Mary suburb]by Jean Baptiste Simon ThierryNew Orleans: Thierry and Co., 1808gift of Ralph M. Pons, 76-1065-RL.1

MARCH

Louisiana LexiconBanquette. Neutral ground. Tchoupitoulas. New Orleanians love their special vocabulary, which can serve as a passport to fascinating aspects of local history. Take, for instance, “batture.” This term, for alluvial land on the river side of a levee, became the subject of a hot-button issue following the Louisiana Purchase, when aspects of Louisiana’s civil law began to conflict with US common law. In 1807 attorney Edward Livingston claimed a portion of the batture as his private property, but federal officials, including President Thomas Jefferson, argued that new land formed by river deposits belonged to the US government. Multiple batture-rights cases wound through the legal system, going to the Supreme Court multiple times, until a compromise was reached in 1820.

JUNE

Sound and RhythmTalking about New Orleans music in a single tour is a steep task: from Native American drumming to the French Opera House to Jelly Roll Morton to Mahalia Jackson, the centuries are full of people making and loving music in Louisiana. Louis Moreau Gottschalk, the composer and virtuoso pianist, was the first American composer to incor-porate African-derived rhythms into his work, most famously in his Bamboula: Danse des Nègres. Gottschalk, whose childhood Rampart Street house overlooked the weekly dances at Congo Square, based the theme on the Afro-Creole tune “Quand patate la cuite,” and the catchy syncopated rhythm, as well as his flair for showmanship, made him a huge celebrity.

Fall 2016 9

Zimmerstutzen rifle1850s; tiger maple, steelby Jean-Baptiste Revol (New Orleans)2007.0079

Ursuline Convent refectory tablebetween 1734 and 1753; walnut, cypress, tulip poplarmanufactured in New Orleanscourtesy of Robert Edward Judice, EL3.1990

Louis Moreau Gottschalk1873; painted plasterby Achille Perelli1979.144.5

Louis Armstrong’s 50 Hot Choruses for Cornet Chicago: Melrose Bros. Music Company, 1927acquisition made possible by the Clarisse Claiborne Grima Fund, 92-48-L.10

APRIL

Playing TricksIn the spirit of April Fool’s Day, docents challenged visitors to a game of “Fact or Fiction” about items in the History Galleries. For example, is the German rifle on display called a rattegewehr, used for pest control in the 19th century? No. Was the Baroness de Pontalba, builder of the Pontalba Apartments flanking Jackson Square, shot in the chest and hand by her father-in-law in an attempt to kill her and release her fortune? Yes.

MAY

Women’s WorkMay’s tour complemented the exhibition Voices of Progress: Twenty Women Who Changed New Orleans, and while the show focused mostly on women of the 19th and early 20th centuries, docents in the History Galleries brought the discussion back to the earliest days of Louisiana. The first Ursuline nuns arrived in the colony in 1727, and they provided a spiritual and physical home for girls and young women. The long refectory table in the History Galleries, among the earliest documented pieces of Louisiana-made furniture, has long drawers that can be opened from either side. This ease of access served the Ursulines and their wards as they dined, studied, worked, and reflected around the table.

10 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

T H N O C A T 5 0

French Market and Red Store between 1841 and 1844; oil on canvasby Louis Dominique Grandjean Develle 1948.1

Topographical and Drainage Map of New Orleans and Surroundings1878; lithograph with watercolorby Thomas Sydenham Hardee, draftsman00.34 a,b

Real cedula de S.M. y señores del consejo . . . . (Pinckney’s Treaty)Madrid: La Imprenta Real, [1796]83-197-RL

JULY

War and PeaceThe Battle of New Orleans and the Louisiana Purchase are among the major milestones covered in the History Galleries, but July’s tour, focusing on battles and treaties, also spotlighted lesser-known conflicts and resolutions. After the American Revolution, farming, particularly in the Ohio Valley, expanded considerably and begat the need for US access to the Spanish-held port of New Orleans for both domestic and international trade. Pinckney’s Treaty (1795), also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo, granted American merchants and traders the right to move goods through the port, a privilege officially outlawed but commonly flouted by smugglers and priva-teers in the preceding decades.

AUGUST

Dinner Is ServedIn early August THNOC’s New Orleans Antiques Forum focused on the legacy of dining in the South, and docents found plenty of food cues to work with in the History Galleries. The painting French Market and Red Store symbolizes an important transition in the colony, from the early days of hardship and near-starvation to a time of greater abundance that could establish and support a formal central market. In the mid-19th century, dining out grew in popularity, with hotels and early restaurants such as Antoine’s offering a fine-dining experience. An 1848 menu for the St. Charles Hotel features familiar items such as shrimp in addition to such forgotten delicacies as “calf ’s head, brain sauce.” Restaurants were almost exclusively the province of men until the early 20th century, when public dining rooms began opening their doors to women.

SEPTEMBER

Geographical Risks and Rewards New Orleans’s location was selected for its high ground and access to the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, but flooding, tropical disease, and drainage all pro- vided major challenges to the city’s development. This 19th-century map shows an expanding New Orleans and the infrastructure that made it possible. The Carondelet and New Basin Canals expanded shipping access for trade, and the map shows the locations of early drainage structures.

Fall 2016 11

DECEMBER

Holiday Season Holidays in New Orleans go beyond Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s, to include the annual Sugar Bowl game and the start of Carnival on January 6. From the early to mid-19th century, the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans, known as the Eighth of January, was as big a national holiday as Independence Day. Balls and parties in celebra-tion of the “Glorious Eighth” added to many people’s packed holiday social calendars, but observance of the anniversary dropped off after the Civil War.

St. Cyr and Lacoste family immortelleca. 1836; human hair, paint on ivory, wood1958.84

Betsy1837; oil on canvasby François Joseph Fleischbein 1985.212

Sugar Bowl promotional brochure1935; offset lithographby Mid-Winter Sports Association gift of the Sugar Bowl, 2007.0208.9

OCTOBER

Danse Macabre The French Quarter is full of stories of the supernatural, but Louisiana history offers plenty of non-spectral frights. The yellow fever epidemic of the 19th century, which killed more than 40,000 people in New Orleans between 1810 and 1900, was only one of many diseases that beset Louisianans through poor sanitation and lack of public health infor-mation. Mourners memorialized the dead through rituals, such as stopping clocks and covering mirrors in a deceased person’s home, or by creating remembrance objects known as immortelles.

NOVEMBER

Free People of ColorUnlike British colonies, Louisiana under the French and Spanish granted property and legal rights to a growing nonwhite populace. In 1830 gens de couleur libres (free people of color) formed over a third of the city’s population, though they faced more stringent regulations and discrimination in the decades prior to the Civil War. Starting in the late 18th century sumptuary laws required women of color to cover their heads with wraps, or tignons, as seen in the History Galleries portrait of a free woman of color known as Betsy.

TOURS

Themed tours of the Louisiana History Galleries

First Friday of every month, through 2016

10 and 11 a.m., 2 and 3 p.m.

50¢

In addition to the special themed tours, docents are offering a reduced admission fee for the Williams Residence and Architecture and Courtyard Tours—50¢, in celebration of 50 years.

12 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

C O M M U N I T Y

A. Horses at Pasturebetween 1880 and 1892; oil on canvasby William Aiken WalkerThe Monroe-Green Collection, 1997.130.28

B. Louisiana Cabin Scenebetween 1878 and 1920; oil on boardby William Aiken WalkerThe Monroe-Green Collection, 1997.130.13

C. Male Cotton Pickerbetween 1878 and 1920; oil on boardby William Aiken WalkerThe Monroe-Green Collection, 1997.130.6

ON THE JOB

Maclyn Le Bourgeois HickeyPOSITION: Coordinator for curatorial conservation, on staff since 1987

ASSIGNMENT: Research the work of painter William Aiken Walker, whose work makes up THNOC’s Monroe-Green Collection

in city buildings and homes. Sociable and well dressed, Walker was a raconteur who enjoyed fine dining, wrote poetry, and played the piano.

After the bombing of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Walker enlisted in the Confederate Army but was discharged after brief service. After the war, Walker traveled and lived in various southern cities, paint-ing and visiting friends; he also camped, hunted, and fished in the wilderness.

Walker visited Europe in 1870, and though little is known of his travels, he may have visited various academies and artists’ ateliers in France and Germany. European art had a subtle influence on Walker: his skillfully executed Horses at Pasture shows similarities to the work of John Frederick Herring, a well-known English painter of horses, and his still lifes, such as Still Life with Cheese, Bottle of Wine and Mice, show a Dutch or German derivation. An avid fisherman and hunter, he painted nature mortes, depicting dead game, and drew sketches of southern Florida, where he enjoyed fishing.

During and after Reconstruction Walker lived intermittently in New Orleans, where he was active in the local art scene and exhibited his work frequently. He report-edly set up an easel on Dumaine and Royal Streets, where he painted images of sharecroppers in assembly-line fashion. He would divide his board into several smaller rectangular spaces, paint a strip of blue sky in each, then a brown foreground with cotton plants and their fluffy white bounty. Then he would superimpose a figure over the cotton plants. He cut up

Since my earliest days at The Collection, working in the curatorial department, I have enjoyed learning about artwork in our permanent holdings. As coordinator of curatorial conservation I arrange for artwork and other objects to be conserved, and I also research and write about art that is on exhibition. Recently I explored the life and career of artist William Aiken Walker, whose works are on display outside the WRC Reading Room. Walker painted images of sharecroppers in cotton fields, revealing an affection for his memories of a romanticized Old South that is also evident in his landscapes and still lifes. Born in 1839, the youngest child of a well-to-do Charleston cotton factor, Walker was educated at home and studied art, music, and modern languages. Before the Civil War, Charleston was a cultural center in the South, with European paintings on display

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the boards, selling the paintings at afford-able prices. Similarly, during the 1884 World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition, Walker is believed to have set up his easel in Exposition Park (now Audubon Park), selling his paintings of sharecroppers as souvenirs. Other scenes were painted on copper plates and wooden palettes; many depicted iconic sights such as steamboats at the levee and expansive cotton fields filled with workers. These romanticized images of the South held appeal beyond Louisiana; many of his tourist clients were from the North.

Walker’s smaller canvases typically show a single foreground figure, posed frontally, of a sharecropper, often standing in a cotton field. Their faces are deeply lined, and their clothing is ragged and colorful, with bright patches. They wear hats or tignons; some smoke corncob pipes, sit astride horses, or carry bags of cotton slung over their shoulders. With such similar stance, dress, and placement, as well as titles such as Male Itinerant and Female Cotton Picker, the figures appear as stereotypes rather than individuals. His bucolic sharecropper cabin scenes also share similar compositions, with a dirt lawn in the foreground, a cabin placed frontally at midground, and figures and farm equipment scattered about.

Like other artists of his time, Walker expressed a gentle vision of sharecropper life, one that softened the emotional and physical toll of a lifetime of hard, daily agri-cultural labor. His placid figures are sturdy, strong, and colorfully dressed; they stand in cotton fields where the sky is bright and the harvest plentiful. In all, Walker strived to capture the peaceful and predictable South that existed in his memory, of contented workers, beautiful landscapes, and abun-dance. —MACLYN LE BOURGEOIS HICKEY

STAFF NEWS

New StaffMatthew Carlin, Peggy Giorgio, Suzanne Grimmer, Catherine Kinabrew, Lacey Poche, and Suzanne Stone, volunteers.

PublicationsErin M. Greenwald, curator and historian, published the book Marc-Antoine Caillot and the French Company of the Indies in Louisiana: Trade in the French Atlantic World (Louisiana State University Press, 2016).

In May, Library Processor Kevin T. Harrell presented the paper “Challenges and Promise: How the Digital Surrey Calendar Can Benefit the Ethnohisto-rian” at the annual conference of the Society of Southwest Archivists.

In the CommunityReference Assistance Robert Ticknor joined the programs committee for the Louisiana Historical Association.

Amanda McFillen, associate director of museum programs, joined the board of the Louisiana Landmarks Society.

Mark Cave, senior curator and oral historian, was elected president of the International Oral History Association at the organization’s recent conference.

HonorsThe Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly received a 2016 design award from the American Alliance of Museums. The magazine is designed by Alison Cody Design and edited by Molly Reid.

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Shop online at www.hnoc.org/shop

VOLUME X X XII I

NUMBER 1

WINTER 2016

The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

RIPPLE EFFECTS: Louisiana Watercolors

14 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

C O M M U N I T Y

Calhoun with Lynn Adams, 1988

Mimi Calhoun first came to The Collection as a volunteer filling in a few shifts for a friend, and over the following three decades she became irreplaceable. Facilities manager until earlier this year, when she quietly retired to attend to her health, Calhoun was an indomitable spirit beloved by friends and colleagues as a caring, eminently capable person. She passed away July 14, 2016, at the age of 77.

“Mimi was incredibly energetic and active, and she graciously took on every new project that came under her purview,” said Executive Director Priscilla Lawrence. “She was fun, she was funny, she was kind, she was caring—just the most wonderful person. I feel very privileged to have been able to work with her for so long.”

Calhoun, a New Orleans native who graduated from Newcomb College, began her formal employment with The Collection as a docent, but her efficiency and eagerness soon moved her into other positions. In the mid-1990s she served as assistant to Jon Kukla, then executive direc-tor of THNOC, and in her role as facilities manager she found a perfect vehicle for her moxie. “The longer she was here, her job got bigger and bigger, and she was just

incredibly gracious about it,” Lawrence said. “She attended workshops and trainings and learned all about HVAC systems and how they’re supposed to work in museums. She built a support system of contractors who would come to us before anyone else. She was highly respected by them.”

Calhoun’s southern manners and indomitable fortitude proved a powerful combination. “Diminutive and feisty, Mimi was a little dynamo, a force to be reckoned with, and her energy and drive will be missed here at THNOC,” said Carol O. Bartels, director of technology and a long-time friend and colleague. “She took her job seriously but not herself, always down-playing her role in matters and the force that she was. Nobody could fuss and fight like Mimi to protect and defend THNOC.”

In her uniform of pressed button-downs, smart flats, and chic pencil skirts, “she had a wonderful sense of style,” recalled Alfred E. Lemmon, director of the Williams Research Center. “She always managed to get things done, not only for her work at The Collection but in the community. She was always taking care of people, so gracious, and she was very, very dear to me.”

Development Coordinator Coaina Delbert recalled the dogged persistence with which Calhoun attempted to help her through the tribulations of post-Katrina rebuilding. Though Calhoun was two decades Delbert’s senior, “she could run circles around me,” she said. “I had lost everything [in the flood], and Mimi helped me through the whole process. I was having trouble with Road Home, and one day she took me down to a title company on Bienville Street to try to solve the issue. She was determined to fix this for me. ‘You’re gonna get back home again,’ she’d say.”

Calhoun lost her husband of 56 years, John Worthing Calhoun, in 2015. She is survived by her three children—John Worthing Calhoun III, Catherine Clann Calhoun, and Susan Calhoun Waggoner—and four grandchildren. —MOLLY REID

IN MEMORIAM

Mimi Calhoun

Fall 2016 15

MEMBERSHIP LEVELS

Founder Individual $35 Founder Family $65 Full membership benefitsFamily memberships are for one or two adults and any children under 18 all residing in a single household, or for one member and a guest.

Merieult Society $100Full membership benefits plus:• a special gift

Mahalia Society $250Full membership benefits plus:• a special gift• private, guided tours (by appointment)

Jackson Society $500Full membership benefits plus:• a special gift• private, guided tours (by appointment)• free admission to all evening lectures

Laussat Society $1,000Full membership benefits plus:• a special gift• private, guided tours (by appointment)• free admission to all evening lectures• invitation to annual gala

Bienville Circle $5,000Full membership benefits plus:• a special gift• private, guided tours (by appointment)• free admission to all evening lectures• invitation to annual gala• lunch with the executive director

Become a MemberBENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIPAll members of The Collection enjoy the following benefits for one full year:• complimentary admission to all permanent tours and rotating exhibitions• special invitations to events, trips, receptions, and exhibition previews• complimentary admission to the Concerts in the Courtyard series• a 10 percent discount at The Shop at The Collection• a subscription to The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

HOW TO JOINVisit www.hnoc.org and click the Support Us link or complete the enclosed envelope and return it with your gift.

NORTH AMERICAN RECIPROCAL MUSEUM PROGR AMMembers of the Merieult, Mahalia, Jackson, and Laussat Societies and the Bienville Circle receive reciprocal benefits at other leading museums through the North American Reciprocal Museum (NARM) program. These benefits include free member admission, discounts on concert and lecture tickets, and discounts at the shops of participating museums. Visit www.narmassociation.org for more information.

Sunday jazz brunch at Arnaud’s Restaurant caps off the 2016 New Orleans Antiques Forum.

Participants in the Antiques Forum’s optional preconference tour are greeted at the Catalpa Plantation, near St. Francisville, Louisiana.

16 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

C O M M U N I T Y

ON THE SCENE

Dinner, Theater, and DrinksThe 2016 New Orleans Antiques Forum, held August 4–7, focused on the wares and rituals of the Southern dining room. China patterns, flat-ware, serving utensils, and dining-room furniture each got a turn in the spotlight for antiques lovers to discuss and enjoy.

A. Adam Erby, Sumpter T. Priddy III, Kelly Conway, and John Stuart Gordon

B. Steve Stirling, Joanie Jennings, and Jack Pruitt

C. Leslie Grigsby and Nick Dawes

D. Jeanette Feltus and Bridget Green

E. Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser (right) greets preconference tour participants at Rosedown Plantation State Historic Site.

F. Neal Alford, Sumpter T. Priddy III, and Laurie Ossman

G. Ron and Anne Pincus with Ashley and James Fox-Smith

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The 14th Les Comédiens Français Lecture, held July 12, focused on the work of the 19th-century poet and playwright Victor Séjour, a free man of color.

In June the culinary symposium “Rum, Rhum, Ron!” occasioned lectures and libations centered on the sugarcane-derived spirit.

H. Abigail Gullo, Elizabeth Pearce, Jessica Harris, Ed Hamilton, Nick Detrich, Rosie Schapp, and Shannon Mustipher

I. John H. Lawrence and Jessica Harris I

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J. Walter Harris Jr., Janet Daley Duval, Alfred E. Lemmon, Pamela D. Arceneaux, and Howard Margot

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C. J. Blanda announces his love of antiques and art as soon as one steps into the foyer of his historic Esplanade Avenue townhouse. Serving as a wall opposite the front entry are a pair of 300-year-old floor-to-ceiling French doors with gold leaf trim, originally hailing from a Spanish castle but found in a New Orleans antiques shop. For Blanda, a New Orleans native whose roots in the city extend to the 1700s, travel and decorative arts are entwined passions, ones he has indulged through multiple trips around the world and the beautiful souvenirs that appoint his abode.

A longtime member of The Historic New Orleans Collection and a current volunteer, Blanda has attended every New Orleans Antiques Forum since the event’s founding in 2008. He has also included The Collection in his estate plan, making him part of THNOC’s Williams Society. “They are wonderful stewards,” he said. “I enjoy volunteering at The Collection because it’s such a marvelous place, and you meet so many people.” By opening his doors to visitors for various historic house tours over the years—in effect, hosting his

FOCUS ON PHIL ANTHROPY

C. J. Blanda

tapestry hanging over his sleigh bed; bisque porcelain figurines of Hellenic warriors; and plaster copies of medals from Pompeii, which became popular souvenirs following the rediscovery of the ancient city in the 1700s. With such a wide range of interest in his collecting and his appreciation of art, Blanda finds plenty to discuss with visi-tors to The Collection in the course of his volunteer work. “I’ve met people from many of the countries I’ve visited, and it’s such a pleasure,” he said.

On several occasions, he has invited curi-ous passers-by, peeking through his garden gate from Esplanade, into his wonderland of plants and outdoor furnishings. There, they can see 35-year-old orchids brought back from Haiti, gigantic night-blooming cereus (which, in Blanda’s younger days, occasioned annual blooming parties), flag-stone from India, busts of Roman emperors mounted in archways along the top of the patio’s back wall, and dozens of thriving palms, ferns, begonias, and more. “I’ve gotten so many thank-you letters over the years,” he said. “I’m just a caretaker. I don’t want to be selfish.” —MOLLY REIDown antiques show—he shares with The

Collection a commitment to exhibiting beautiful, historically significant objects for the public. “The Collection is doing a great service to the state and the city by preserv-ing and presenting all their artifacts related to the history of the region,” Blanda said. “I collect because I love the beauty of the object and the history.”

Blanda had a long career in insurance before his retirement, and his travels have taken him to 78 countries, including multiple trips to every country in Europe and three stints in India and in China. On his travels, he likes to follow his instincts, seeking out “places where I think there are beautiful things, and I let them speak to me.” This wanderlust-fueled collect-ing tactic has led him to treasures such as 19th-century lithographs of Persian warriors, which he has placed in his burgundy-red bathroom; a white marble table inlaid with lapis lazuli and mother of pearl, from India; an 18th-century Spanish engraving of the Christ child sleeping on the cross and two Russian icons, which fill his “sacred wall”; an enormous French

Blanda’s stereo room features a first-empire cabinet topped with verde antique marble, as well as an arrangement of portraits and portrait miniatures on ivory hanging above.

18 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

DONORS

April–June 2016The Historic New Orleans Collection is honored to recognize and thank the following individuals and organizations for their financial and material donations.

Eugenia Foster Adams

Claudette Allison

Mary Elizabeth Alvarez

Anonymous

Tiki and Arthur J. Axelrod

Ronn Babin and Peter Jolet

Jenny Bagert

Clinton Bagley

Doris B. and William M. Barnett

Björn Bärnheim

Jeanette and Robert Barras

Baskerville

Lawrence E. Batiste

A. Chandler Battaile Jr.

Mary Jane Bauer

BBC Destination Management

Dr. Edwin and Barbara Beckman

Joan and Roland Becnel

Deena Sivart Bedigian

Aimée and Michael Bell

Dorothy L. Benge

Mr. and Mrs. Emanuel V. Benjamin III

Myrna B. Bergeron

Alvin Y. Bethard

Lila and Ernest B. Beyer

Anne and Christopher G. Bird

Eric R. Bissel

Catherine and Tom Bissell

C. J. Blanda

Bryant Blevins

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Bonner Jr.

William E. Borah

Joan B. Bostick

Isabelle and Lester Bourg

Leslie Lambour Bouterie and Larry Bouterie

Angela M. Bowlin

Mr. and Mrs. John G. B. Boyd

Bradish Johnson Co., Ltd.

Drs. Elizabeth and Robert Bray

The Honorable and Mrs. Peter Scott Bridges

Arthur Brocato

Brigid Brown and Steven Guidry

Gay Browning

Mr. and Mrs. Robert N. Bruce Jr.

Cheron Brylski and Harold F. Baquet

Bethany Bultman

Patrick M. Burke

Amelia M. and Neil C. Cagle

Cahn Family Foundation Inc.

Kathleen and Robert Campo

Shirley G. Cannon

Dr. and Mrs. Michael E. Carey

Nell Carmichael

Carol Lise and Irving Rosen Fund

John K. Carpenter and John C. Sykes III

Sonya and Joe Carr

Karen N. Carroll

Charles Case and Phillip St. Cloud

Barry Cazaubon

Mr. and Mrs. Judson Chase

Stephen Chesnut

Caroline and Greg Christman

Mrs. William K. Christovich

Sarah Churney

Loretta Capdevielle Clark

Jacquelyn B. and Arthur A. Clarkson

Carolyn and Merlin Clausing

Susan Clements

Linda and Martin Colvill

Mr. and Mrs. James P. Conner

Donna Capelle Cook and Tony S. Cook

Elizabeth and Lynton G. Cook

Mac and Pamela Corbin

Joyce Corrington

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph C. Cox Jr.

Betty Crow

Louis D. Curet

George L. Dansker

Joe Darby

Jan E. Davis

Eileen M. Day and Alan J. Cutlec

Marie Louise de la Vergne

Winston De Ville

Deborah and Joseph Exnicios Family Fund

Susan B. Deckert

Margo Delaughter

Maurice L. R. Delechelle

Sandy and Hayden S. Dent

Kathleen L. and Richard A. Derbes

Sandra Derenbecker

Katherine Miller Determan

Isabelle Dissard-Cooper

Ana Maria C. Dobrescu

Judith S. and Jeffrey René Doussan

Elizabeth A. Drescher

Susan Schoonmaker Dufour, Ann Schoonmaker Lopez, Rae Schoonmaker Miller, Gail Schoonmaker Ruddock, and Jan Schoonmaker

Margaret M. Dziedzic and James Marunowski

Thelia Jean Eaby

Dr. and Mrs. Valentine Earhart

J. Peter Eaves

Dr. Jay D. and Andrea Edwards

Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Edwards

Mary Lou Eichhorn

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley E. Ellington Jr.

Haydee Lafaye Ellis and Frederick S. Ellis

Kurt D. Engelhardt

Estate of Tatham E. Hertzberg

Charlotte A. Estopinal

Deborah Fagan

Sonny Faggart

Jean M. Farnsworth

Jennifer Farwell

Jan Feldberg

Karen and Ray Fernandez

Dr. Terrance and Merle Fippinger

Fitzpatrick Foundation

Marlive E. Fitzpatrick

Ella and Walter Flower III

Helen Flammer and Raúl Fonte

Charlotte Fontenot

John Ford

Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Forsythe

Dr. R. Fortier-Bensen and Sylvia Bensen

Brandon J. Frank

Gregg J. Frelinger

French Quarter Citizens Inc.

Colette Stelly Friend and Joseph Friend

Steve Friesen

Kathleen Galante

Loren Gallo

Jackson R. Galloway

Betsie Gambel

Jacqueline F. Gamble

Garrity Solutions

Elisabeth Gehl

Dr. Gene A. Geisert and Karen Walk

Marilyn and John H. Gesser III

Jean M. Gibert

Dale Gibson

Carla Jean Gonzalez

Robin and Tim Gray

Janice Donaldson Grijns

Lee Meitzen Grue

Joan Guccione

Ronald J. Guidry

Mary and David F. Haddow

Dr. and Mrs. Frank A. Hall

Wendy Hall

Steven Halpern

Dr. and Mrs. William Hammel

Mrs. Roger P. Hanahan

Julie Hardin

Kathy Harrell

Ronald Harrell and M. Christian Mounger

Martha Harris and Morgan Lyons

James Harvey

Diana Hayman

Polly and Dan Henderson

The Herman and Seena Lubcher Charitable Foundation Inc.

Kevin Herridge

Earl J. Higgins

H. Jack Hinrichs

History Antiques and Interiors

Louise C. Hoffman

Max C. Holland

Hotel Management of New Orleans

Hotel Monteleone

Judge and Mrs. Henley A. Hunter

Sean Hurly

Newton E. Hyslop Jr.

Helen Ingram

Elizabeth and Benjamin Janke

Mr. and Mrs. R. Andrew Jardine

Thomas Jayne

Jimmy Maxwell and His Orchestra Inc.

Barbara Viavant Broadwell Johnsen and Erik F. Johnsen

Leonard Earl Johnson

Madeline and David Jorgensen

JP Morgan Chase and Co.

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Tribute GiftsTribute gifts are given in memory or in honor of a loved one.

As You Like It Club in honor of Davis Jahncke

Mr. and Mrs. Fredric J. Figge II in memory of Paul M. Haygood

Friday Afternoon Club in honor of Amanda McFillen

John A. Karel in honor of Priscilla and John H. Lawrence

LSU Foundation in honor of Daniel Hammer and Howard Margot

New York University in honor of Daphne L. Derven and Erin M. Greenwald

Joy and Howard Osofsky in memory of Lissa Christine Capo

Diane Fehring Reynolds in memory of Ray and Rose Fehring

Billy and Cindy Woessner in honor of Bonnie Boyd

Warren J. Woods in honor of Dolores F. Harris

Mary Martin Morrill

Moss Antiques Inc.

Roxanne Mouton

Mr. and Mrs. D. B. H. Chaffe III Family Fund

Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence D. Garvey Fund

Lilian and John E. Mullane

Patricia M. Murphy

Craig W. Murray

Emilie G. Nagele

Linda M. and Randall E. Nash

The Nashua Historical Society

Katrina Neill

Alice Monroe Nelson

New Orleans Fire Department

New Orleans Silversmiths

Jeannette Chambon Noel

Teri and Randy Noel

Marguerite Nunnally

Mary Lou and Michael R. O’Keefe

Dr. Joseph F. O’Neil

Orpheum Theater

Carol S. Osborne

Michael Oubre

Mary Kay and Gray S. Parker

Mrs. Godfrey Parkerson

Pat O’Brien’s Bar Inc.

Patrick F. Taylor Foundation

Dr. Gene F. Pawlick

Mary Jane Phelan

Andrew L. Plauché Jr.

Carlton Polk

Helen and Andrew Polmer

Judith and Frank S. Pons

Darlette A. and William S. Powell

Preservation Hall LLC

Princeton University, Rare Books and Special Collections

Karen L. Puente

Evelyn F. Pugh and Richard A. Thompson

Ralph Brennan Group

Kathryn E. Rapier

Adrienne Mouledoux Rasmus and Ronald C. Rasmus

Gary Rauber

Yolita E. Rausche

Deborah Rebuck

Dr. and Mrs. Richard J. Reed

Barbara and David Reid

Leon J. Reymond Jr.

Dr. Frederick A. and Suzanne Rhodes III

Robert E. Rintz

John McEnery Robertson

Harriet E. Robin

John Robinson IV

Dr. Marianne and Sheldon L. Rosenzweig

Bill Ross

Royal Antiques Ltd.

Virginia Dare Rufin

Marilyn S. Rusovich

Elizabeth H. and John H. Ryan

Mr. and Mrs. Harold J. Ryan

Courtney-Anne Sarpy

Linda J. and John R. Sarpy

Jan Schoonmaker

Florence and Richard Schornstein

Sandy and Naif Shahady

Jane B. and Edward Shambra

Dr. Alan E. and Joan Sheen

Leatrice S. Siegel

Lindy and Jon Silverman

Anita Silvernail

Adrian Sirbu

Lisa Slatten

Diana Smith

Gayle B. Smith

Karen G. Smith

Betty J. Socha

Angela and Jacques Soulas

Elizabeth M. Stafford

Howard C. Stanley

Mr. and Mrs. John A. Stassi II

Anne D. and Richard B. Stephens

Whitney Allyson Steve

Irma Marie Stiegler

Betsy Stout

Jason Strada

Thomas J. Stranova

Dr. and Mrs. Michael Sullivan

Drs. Jane F. and Austin J. Sumner

Alfred R. Sunseri

Felton Suthon

Mary Lee Sweat and Thomas J. Gault

Frances Swigart

Laurie Taaffe

Jim Tapley

Tyrone H. Taylor

Mary Melanie Thigpen

Sheryl L. Thompson

W. Howard Thompson

Carol D. and James W. Thornton

Dr. Henry K. and Audrey G. Threefoot

Jessica Travis

Wade Trosclair

Judith Talbot Tullis

Nancy P. Turner

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design

V. Price Leblanc Jr. Fund

Russell B. Van Dyke

Dr. Alfonso and Maria-Eugenia Vargas

Caroline Vézina

Robert C. Vogel

David Waldheim

Dolores J. Walker

Mr. and Mrs. John E. Walker

Beth Watkins

Mary Welch

Mr. and Mrs. Walter T. Weller Jr.

Paul Werner

Elfriede S. Westbrook

Theresa D. Westerfield

Sarah Whicker

Martha Vidos White

Walter H. White III

Dwayne Whitley

Catherine A. Whitney

Jimmie C. Wickham

Shelly Wills

Gaylord Wilson

Jeanne Wilson

Nellie C. and Donald E. Wilson

Dr. James M. Winford Jr.

Dr. and Mrs. William J. Woessner

Carolyn C. and John D. Wogan

Nancy G. Wogan

Dr. James H. Wolfe

Warren J. Woods

Toni Wright

Melody Young and Steven D. Martin

Jeanne and Mark Juneau

The Kabacoff Family Foundation

Maurice Pres Kabacoff

William “Bill” Karam Jr.

Dr. Jan Kasofsky

Beverly Katz, Exterior Designs Inc.

Keil’s Antiques Inc.

Jack Kelleher

John Kelly

Dr. Nina M. Kelly

Dr. Susan Kelso

Mr. and Mrs. Robert J. Killeen

Carole Kulman

Jenny Brown LaCour and Barry L. LaCour

Elizabeth M. and James C. Landis

Marlin C. Landry

Tommy Laurendine

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Lawrence

John H. Lawrence

Mr. and Mrs. Clyde H. LeBlanc

Lorraine LeBlanc

Mr. and Mrs. Edward F. LeBreton III

Gladys LeBreton

Dr. Joseph and Leanne LeClere

Lili LeGardeur

LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana Inc.

Jo Lichtman

Lightner Museum

Michelle Lipka

Douglass R. Lore

Henri M. Louapre

Dr. J. Bruce Lowe

Mrs. Ralph Lupin

John T. Magill

Drs. Jamie M. Manders and James M. Riopelle

Jacob Manguno

Frances F. Marcus

Howard M. Margot

Josie and George Markey

Nora Marsh and Julian Doerr Mutter

Patricia S. and John F. Marshall

Mrs. Frank W. Masson

Michael Mays

James A. McAlister

Gregory McClain

Celia and Colin L. McCormick

Ralph McDonald II

Ceil and Thomas C. McGehee

Robert E. McWhirter

Ginger Borah Meislahn

Margit E. Merey-Kadar

Elsie Mae Miller

Mary Moises

Dick Molpus

Elizabeth P. Moran

Tony Morgan

20 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

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ACQUISITION SPOTLIGHT

Eyes of the CityThe Harold F. Baquet Archive comes to THNOC, bringing with it a photographic master’s decades-long documentation of African American life in New Orleans.

On June 2, 2016, the photographic archive of Harold F. Baquet was transferred to The Historic New Orleans Collection via donation from his widow, Cheron Brylski, bringing to a conclusion a process initi-ated after Baquet’s death, at the age of 56, on June 18, 2015. From the outset, it was clear that Baquet’s view of New Orleans, filtered through both his camera and life experiences, would be a wonderful addi-tion to The Collection’s photographic history of New Orleans, a pictorial chronicle that THNOC has built over nearly 40 years.

Active collection of photography (not an area of concentration for founders Kemper and Leila Williams) began in earnest in 1976, with the acquisition of architectural photographs by Betsy Swanson, co-creator of the Friends of the Cabildo’s New Orleans

All images © Cheron Brylski and The Historic New Orleans Collection

A. Trampoline, Desire Housing Project, from the Eyes of Desire seriesbetween 1985 and 1990; photograph by Harold F. Baquetgift of Harold F. Baquet and Cheron Brylski, 2016.0172

B. Protester holding a sign at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Cummings, Georgia1987; photographby Harold F. Baquetgift of Harold F. Baquet and Cheron Brylski, 2016.0172

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C. Workers installing drywall at the Sewerage and Water Board building1990s; photograph by Harold F. Baquetgift of Harold F. Baquet and Cheron Brylski, 2016.0172

D. Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial speaking to supporters during his “third term” campaignbetween 1985 and 1986; photograph by Harold F. Baquetgift of Harold F. Baquet and Cheron Brylski, 2016.0172

E. Dix’s Barber Shop, 342 S. Rampart Street1990s; photograph by Harold F. Baquetgift of Harold F. Baquet and Cheron Brylski, 2016.0172

Architecture book series. Since then, THNOC has built photographic holdings based principally on archives of individual photographers or studios, rather than piece-meal images. The acquisition of Baquet’s archive follows this model but is a milestone for The Collection because it represents the first extended body of work by an African American New Orleans photographer at THNOC.

The archive spans the late 1970s through 2010 and includes work made during the administrations of the first two African American mayors of New Orleans, Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial (1978–86) and Sidney J. Barthelemy (1986–94). Baquet’s inquisitive personality, as well as New Orleans’s rela-tively small number of photography firms, led to a wide range of practice for Baquet. Consequently, his archive contains thou-sands of rolls of film (mostly 35 millimeter but also other formats), color slides, digital files, and printed photographs that run the gamut of a busy and successful commercial practice. Through portraits, advertise-ments, hard news, stock photography, and his own projects, he covered weddings, political events, neighborhood life and festivals, Mardi Gras, and the larger face of the city as embodied in its people and architecture. Some of these topics skewed more toward the photographer’s personal interests, including daily life in African American neighborhoods. His work depicted many of the problems facing

black citizens, from crime to substandard housing and limited economic opportuni-ties. Yet despite their clear-eyed appraisal of social inequities, his photographs also reflected their subjects’ compassion, pride, and tenderness, as well as their maker’s affection.

The Harold F. Baquet Archive is vast—and despite careful documentation by the photographer, the complete body of work will not be fully accessible to the public until significant cataloging and digitiza-tion has been accomplished. As this process advances in stages, portions of the collec-tion will be available for consultation in the Williams Research Center. —JOHN H.

LAWRENCE

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C

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22 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

A C Q U I S I T I O N S

Handbill advertising Houdini stunt in New Orleans2016.0147

During his slate of appearances at New Orleans’s Orpheum Theatre in November 1907, the renowned illusionist and escape artist Harry Houdini (1874–1926) received a challenge from the New Orleans Item. Houdini often received such challenges to perform public stunts while on tour, and in this one he was first to allow himself to be manacled by a member of the New Orleans Police Department and then to dive into the Mississippi River at the foot of Canal Street from the steamer J. S. The date announced was Sunday, November 17, at noon. A recently acquired handbill bearing a bust portrait image of Houdini in the upper-left corner advertises the challenge, assuring attendees that “the Leap can be plainly seen from the Levee.”

On the day of the event, Houdini left the Orpheum at 11:15 a.m. with a small entourage and made his way onto the steamer’s gangplank. Rain had begun to fall but did not deter the gathering crowd of 7,000 to 10,000 onlookers near the Canal Street ferry landing. Soundings were taken from the boat’s bow, and Houdini prepared for the dive. Instead of an NOPD officer, Judge John Fogarty of the First Recorder’s Court shackled him with a set of irons loaned from Orleans Parish Prison; long, thick chains were wrapped around his wrists, arms, torso, and neck and secured with padlocks. His legs were left free, although Houdini reportedly asked that they be bound as well. As reported in the Daily Picayune, at exactly noon, Houdini acknowledged the crowd, and with a “Good-by, boys!” propelled himself headfirst into the Mississippi.

Viewers strained to get any indication of his whereabouts in the river, and as seconds ticked by, the crowd became restless—but after half a minute, his arm broke through the water, clutching a mass of chains and opened locks. Then his head appeared, and in triumph, he threw the hardware into a waiting rowboat and swam for a floating platform, where he was helped into a warm robe. While drying off in a private dressing room on the steamer, Houdini remarked to the press, “That’s an awful river . . . the worst I have ever been in. . . . I felt the strong current . . . and while they tell me I was down only thirty seconds, it seemed to me that I was in that cold and darkness for an hour.” —PAMELA D. ARCENEAUX

Arrest du Conseil d’estat du Roy qui nomme les Directeurs de la Compagnie d’Occident2016.0070

The Collection recently acquired an important addition to its holdings on Scottish financier and economic theorist John Law and the related Companies of the West and of the Indies. In August 1717 the Company of the West, under Law’s auspices, received a 25-year monop-oly over fur trading, mineral rights, and the trade in goods and peoples in the

RECENT ADDITIONS

Death-Defying Tricks, Outsider Poetry, and the Rule of Law

Fall 2016 23

Louisiana colony. Shortly thereafter, on September 12, 1717, Louis XV’s council of state, headed by the king’s regent, the duc d’Orléans, issued this warrant naming the company’s six directors. These directors, listed in the document, comprise Law and the other five French financiers, from Auch, La Rochelle, Saint-Malo, Nantes, and La Rochelle: Jean-Baptiste Martin Dartaguiette, Jean-Baptiste Duché, René Moreau, Jean Piou, and François Castanier. In 1719, after absorbing the Senegal Company and the remnants of the several other French trading entities based in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the conglomerate was renamed the Company of the Indies. This larger company retained control of Louisiana until 1731, when it retroceded the colony to the king 11 years prior to the expiration of its charter. —ERIN M.

GREENWALD

Kaja2016.0011

New Orleans in the mid-20th century was a haven for artists, poets, and musicians of the new bohemian set, including Kay “Kaja” Johnson, the poet and artist who founded the New School Press in her 618 Ursulines Street apartment. Her artwork was shown at the Downtown Gallery in New Orleans, which represented such artists as the photographer and painter George Dureau and the acclaimed folk artist Sister Gertrude Morgan. In 1961 Johnson became a representative of and contributor to the Outsider, the pioneering literary magazine published by the French Quarter–based Loujon Press, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris to seek out Gregory Corso, her literary idol, who was living at the famed “Beat Hotel.”

In Paris, she continued to write and paint while corresponding with Charles Bukowski and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, among others. Ferlinghetti’s bookstore and publishing house City Lights eventually published Human Songs, Johnson’s only book of poetry to have a wide distribu-tion. The rest of her life and works remain a mystery. She was known to be living in

Greece in the late 1960s, but since then she is variously rumored to have joined a Buddhist commune, to be living on the streets of the Bay Area, and to have remained in Greece. A trunk full of her unpublished writings supposedly exists, but its whereabouts are unknown.

Kaja is a pamphlet published by Perdido Press in 1999 and printed and bound at the New Orleans School of Glassworks and Printmaking Studio in

a limited edition of 150, of which The Historic New Orleans Collection’s copy is number 57. It consists of a completed poem, “Heaven at 9 Git-le-Coeur,” about Johnson’s time at the Beat Hotel in Paris, and a draft of another Johnson poem, along with illustrations and an introduc-tion by Edwin Blair of Perdido Press. It complements other items at THNOC, particularly the Edwin J. Blair Collection (2011.0427); Johnson’s collection of poems

24 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

EDITORMolly Reid

DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONSJessica Dorman

HEAD OF PHOTOGRAPHYKeely Merritt

ART DIRECTIONAlison Cody Design

The Historic New Orleans Collection is a

nonprofit institution dedicated to preserving

the distinctive history and culture of New

Orleans and the Gulf South. Founded in

1966 through the Kemper and Leila Williams

Foundation, The Collection operates as a

museum, research center, and publisher in

the heart of the French Quarter.

The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mrs. William K. Christovich, Chair

Drew Jardine, President

John Kallenborn, Vice President

John E. Walker

E. Alexandra Stafford

Hilton S. Bell

Bonnie Boyd

Fred M. Smith, Emeritus and Immediate Past President

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORPriscilla Lawrence

533 Royal Street & 410 Chartres Street

New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

(504) 523-4662

www.hnoc.org | wrc@hnoc.org

ISSN 0886-2109

©2016 The Historic New Orleans Collection

The Impossible Possible, published by New School Press in 1960 (92-48-L.78.121); and a self-portrait Johnson painted in oils around 1955 (2007.0388.30). In the intro-duction of Kaja, Blair states, “This book is being made to honor Kaja in hopes that the unpublished poems and novels, so highly regarded by many, will resurface—that she will again share with us the beauty of her words.” —NINA BOZAK

Descriptive View of the Glorious Battle of New Orleans2016.0215.1

Early printed depictions of the Battle of New Orleans are a longstanding strength of The Collection, one based in cofounder Kemper Williams’s interest in the subject, and THNOC recently acquired another rarity in the field with this engraving on linen depicting the Battle of New Orleans and other significant moments in the history of the early republic. It was likely produced in Scotland soon after the War of 1812. The use of imagery from the American Revolution—rather than other battles of the War of 1812—sets this textile print apart from most others

produced in the same period. A portrait of George Washington, rather than Andrew Jackson, is prominent over the central depiction of the Battle of New Orleans, which is surrounded by four historical vignettes that include the 1773 Boston Tea Party; the 1781 siege of Yorktown and surrender of Cornwallis’s army; the sign-ing of the 1783 Treaty of Paris, in which Great Britain recognized the existence of the United States; and the 1804 bombard-ment of Tripoli during the First Barbary War, one of the earliest projections of American naval power abroad.

The 1815 Battle of New Orleans is thus situated within a longer-than-usual progression of American independence and military prowess. The central view of the battle shows British and American troops fighting on both sides of the Mississippi River—also unusual in early prints—with a key identifying persons and events. Further indicating the likely Scottish origin of the print, a mounted General Jackson is shown rallying his troops in verse based on Robert Burns’s 1793 poem “Scots Wha Hae,” though the words were adapted for the American cause of 1812–15. —JASON WIESE

Fall 2016 25

T. Hausmann & Sons building, 135 Baronne Streetca. 1915; gelatin silver print by Charles L. Franck Photographers The Charles L. Franck Studio Collection at The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1979.325.415

Rain on the RiverMap lovers can carry a piece of 19th-century New Orleans cartography with this distinctive umbrella, available at The Shop at The Collection. With a wide, 42˝ span and an automatic open/close feature, it offers shelter from the storm in style.

New Orleans map umbrella, $17

533 Royal Street, in the French Quarter

Tuesday–Saturday: 9:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. Sunday: 10:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m.

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