Orleans goes wild!

Claire Strauss was a student at Sophie B. Wright High School in New Orleans, during the nineteen-teens.   Her scrapbook of high school life is part of the Claire Strauss Meyer Papers, 1909-1920s, LaRC Manuscripts Collection 870.   Alongside invitations to baby showers and school papers, she kept memorabilia of the times relating to America’s involvement in World War I.

This young girl’s unusual scrapbook includes mounted and loose papers and other objects such as numerous formal photographs, handwritten correspondence, drawings, dried pieces of plants and flowers and other keepsakes, a small mirror, a fur sample, wood samples, crystals from chemistry class, report cards, a prayer card from the Religious School of Congregation Temple Sinai, a spoon, a certificate, postcards, advertisements, World War I era buttons and patches, ribbons, flags, newspaper clippings and other small locally printed items, an invitation and program of her June 12, 1919, graduation ceremony, and high school graduation autographs.  The preprinted volume’s cover title is “a girl’s commencement, rosebud memories.”

In honor of Memorial Day, the Schiro Reading Room will be closed Saturday-Monday, May 25-27, 2013.

Caption: Photographs of scrapbook pages, featuring the headline on the New Orleans States, v. 39, no. 118, Monday  April 28, 1919: “ORLEANS GOES WILD AS SOLDIER PARADE PASSES IN REVIEW, Thousands Meet Train in Early Morning to Extend Personal Greetings, and Then the City Turned Out Its Whole Population to Give the Soldiers and Sailors the Tribute of Joy Which Flamed in Their Hearts; Line of March of the Parade Packed With Multitudes Loudly Acclaiming Their Pent-Up Feelings.”           

Posted by Susanna Powers

Dr. Jeannette K. Laguaite

LaRC’s Manuscripts Collection 866 is made up of the personal and professional papers of Jeannette K. Laguaite of New Orleans.  Dr. Laguaite (1912-2005) was an audiologist, teacher of speech therapy, and an academic administrator at Tulane University School of Medicine during the mid-twentieth century.   Early in her long professional career she taught kindergarten in the New Orleans Public Schools, and also worked as a speech correctionist with children and adults.   During World War II, she served as a Civilian Defense nurse's aide in New Orleans.  She completed her Ph.D. degree in 1952, and then concentrated on scholarly study, teaching, and administration of audiology and speech therapy programs at Tulane University.   Her interests included psychosomatic medicine, particularly clinical hypnosis therapy in speech rehabilitation.   The collection includes thank-you notes from people expressing gratitude for their ability to regain their speech due to her help.   Dr. Laguaite travelled extensively, attending numerous international scholarly conferences, continuing to live in New Orleans throughout her life.

Included in the collection are correspondence, photographs, certificates of appreciation, greeting cards and other items of social ephemera, numerous mimeographed and photocopied Christmas letters sent to friends which detail her activities and travels during the year, awards, keepsakes, World War II era Red Cross patches, church newsletters and programs, her 1952 Ph.D. diploma from Louisiana State University, graduation programs, conference certificates and memorabilia, a scrapbook of her parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary, reprints of her scholarly articles, newspaper clippings and other printed items.   If all of our self-archiving donors will write and keep a copy of their conversational Christmas communications, future researchers will have an easier time doing biographical research, and will gain a sense of the person’s personality.   

Caption: Dr. Laguaite presenting a scholarly paper in Italy in 1962.  Images of items in the Louisiana Research Collection may not be re-published without permission.

Posted by Susanna Powers

Artful touring along the River

J.P. Depot - Steamboat lndg -
 S.S. Louisiana – S.S. Comus – Sugar Refiner – 2^nd. Dist. Ferry – Jackson Brewery.

New Orleans from Barracks St. and River looking up.   

The Richard L. Brown Photograph Collection (LaRC Manuscripts Collection 787) consists of two groupings of photographs, 1901-1921.  The first is a bound album presented by Mary and Eugene H. Park to Captain Benjamin Michael, to thank him for the Mississippi River boat trip they had taken in 1901.  It features photographs from the tour, presumably mostly by Mr. Park, of ships, landscapes, people, fish, and animals, also adding several 1902 New Orleans scenes, such as Canal Street during the car strike, and another at Mardi Gras time.  The second part of the one-box archival collection is a grouping of photographs, perhaps created by different photographers, depicting scenes in a variety of American cities including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston as well as New Orleans.  These were collected by Richard L. Brown, and given by him to the library in 1973.

The title page of the souvenir album is inscribed:  “Capt. Benj. Michael.   New Orleans, La., Nov. 1902.  Compliments of Mr. and Mrs. E. H. Park.  To a kind and thoughtful gentleman who’s many courtesys and the unobtrusive watchfullness drove care and discomfort far away, and made the moments of our Vacation fly as on golden wings.  Mary and Eugene Park.”  The Parks lived in a large antebellum home in New Orleans, with a view of the Mississippi River.

The snapshots of family and friends enjoying their voyage are endearing, the pictures of ships along the way are clear and informative, and the landscape photographs are evocative and beautiful. 

“November woods are chill and bare.”

French Market – on the road Home. 

Images may not be republished without permission.

Posted by Susanna Powers

William Beer, New Orleans Librarian

LaRC is pleased to announce that the guide to the William Beer papers is now available online. The collection includes Beer's correspondence with many well-known authors of New Orleans literature including George Washington Cable, Grace King, Charles Gayarre, Mary Ashley Townsend and Ruth McEnery Stuart.

William Beer was librarian of Tulane's Howard Library and the first librarian of the New Orleans Public Library.  Originally from England, New Orleans became his permanent home as he spent his life travelling the world acquiring rare books and manuscripts for the library.  Through his efforts, the library became a leading repository of rare books, maps and manuscripts.  These materials can still be found in Tulane's Louisiana Research Collection.  Beer played an integral role in the opening of the first free and public library in New Orleans, the New Orleans Public Library.  He acted as both director and librarian of NOPL from 1896-1906.  In addition to his role at the public library, Beer kept his position as the librarian of the Howard Library.

Beer was an avid bibliophile and spent much of his time writing bibliographical notes concerning Louisiana and New Orleans.  He published a short pamphlet of bibliographical notes titled, "Contributions to Louisiana History."  Active in numerous social organizations and frequently mentioned in the social columns of many newspapers in New Orleans, he quickly befriended the literati of New Orleans.

Special thanks to our intern, Remesia Shields, who created the William Beer finding aid, and helped write this post.

(Image: Portrait of William Beer. Images from the William Beer papers, Manuscripts Collection 18, Louisiana Research Collection, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana. Images may not be reproduced without permission.)

Posted by Eira Tansey.