Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

Tulane University Special Collections is delighted to welcome Cate Peebles as TUSC’s first Archival Processing Manager. Cate will lead an effort to establish an archival processing program that efficiently manages collections from acquisition to public access, including processing and supervising the processing of collections, drafting policies and workflows, and conducting surveys and assessments to help prioritize the work of the Collection Management Team and guide its work into the future. Cate holds a Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh, an MFA from the New School in New York City, and a Bachelors in English from Reed College. She joins us from the Yale Center for British Art where, as the Museum Archivist, she processed large, complex archival collections and oversaw the preservation of born-digital records related to art. Cate began at the Yale Center for British Art as a National Digital Stewardship Resident with the Library of Congress...

Tulane University Libraries is producing an ongoing video series, Collection Connection , on the library’s YouTube channel . Each episode focuses on a different TUSC collection available online within the Tulane University Digital Library, such as the Carnival Collection , the Tulane University Archives Historical Collection , and the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Collection . Begun at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic when travel halted, the Tulane University campus closed, and staff began working from home, the series promotes collections that patrons can easily access online. It also allowed library staff then working from home to produce creative library outreach projects for patron use using minimal resources.   The videos are a collaboration between two library departments, Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) and Digital Scholarship and Initiatives (DSI). Alan Velasquez, the library’s Unit Coordinator for Digital Scholarship & Initiatives, is the series’ video edi...

Jillian Cuellar has been selected as a member of the latest cohort of the Association of Research Libraries Leadership Fellows .  The Fellows program was launched in 2004 to prepare future senior library and archival leaders.  Many past participants have gone on to senior roles in ARL and other research libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural memory institutions. This is the first time a candidate from Tulane University has been selected for this program.   Jillian Cuellar is the director of Special Collections at Tulane University Libraries. She provides leadership and vision for the division, and oversees staff, collections, and operations. As a member of the library’s senior management group, she collaborates with a team to advance the library’s mission and meet its strategic goals. Jillian is an active member of the Society of American Archivists (SAA); most recently she served as co-chair of the 2020 Program Committee and completed seven years of service as ...

Bill Monroe (left), interviewing President Jimmy Carter for the NBC News program “Meet the Press,” 1977. Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) has acquired the correspondence, speeches, writings, photographs, and other personal and professional papers of William Blanc (Bill) Monroe Jr. (July 17, 1920 - February 17, 2011). Born in New Orleans, Monroe graduated from Tulane University in 1942, served in the United States Army Air Force in Europe during World War II, and became an American television journalist for NBC News. Early in his career, Monroe served as the first news director for NBC affiliate WDSU-TV in New Orleans where he helped pioneer standards for broadcast journalism. Among the prominent issues he covered were the Emmett Till case (1955) and the desegregation of New Orleans schools by Ruby Bridges (1960). Monroe's team at WDSU-TV won a George Foster Peabody Award in 1959. An advocate for greater press access to courtrooms and legislative chambers and a leader in...

The personal stories of famous musicians, politicians, industry executives, and community leaders regarding renowned “Queen of Gospel” Mahalia Jackson are now available online thanks to funding provided by a 2019 Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources. The Laurraine Goreau Interviews and Recordings feature Mahalia Jackson, her family members, and others who worked with and knew Jackson, including entertainers Ella Fitzgerald, John Hammond, Della Reese, and Dinah Shore; Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) co-founder Reverend Ralph Abernathy; television host Ed Sullivan; gospel stars J. Robert Bradley, Thomas A. Dorsey, Sallie Martin, and Albertina Walker; and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Turkel. These interviews were conducted by Jackson’s biographer and New Orleans States-Item journalist Laurraine Goreau as part of her research for her 1975 authorized biography of Jackson, Just Mahalia, Baby: The Mahalia Jackson Story. “I’m as...

William Brumfield, November 1979, Andronikov Monastery, Moscow, at work on photography for Gold in Azure. Ten years ago, the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University launched an archival collection of material related to the work of William Craft Brumfield, author, photographer, Professor of Slavic Studies, and Sizeler Professor of Jewish Studies at Tulane university. Now the archive has been substantially expanded by Brumfield’s donation of correspondence related to a number of his book projects. Arriving at Tulane for the 1981 fall semester after an assistant professorship at Harvard University, Brumfield was in fact returning to his alma mater (BA in Russian, 1966). Since coming to Tulane, Brumfield has published a series of books and created publicly accessible visual resources (including archival sites at the National Gallery of Art and the Library of Congress) that have carried Tulane University's name around the world. More information on Professor Brumfi...