Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

Mignon Faget is best known as a jewelry designer. But when she began growing her business in the late 1960s, out of a small studio on Dublin Street in the Riverbend area of New Orleans, she designed, produced, and promoted a line of women’s clothing and accessories described as environmental fashion. Natural forms, especially sea creatures indigenous to the Gulf Coast, were among her favorite subjects, and so the belts, tunic vests and short suede dresses were increasingly adorned with likenesses of snails, sand dollars, sea urchins, and crabs, often crafted in pewter tones. The contents of Manuscripts Collection 715, covering 1968 to 1985, were donated to our repository by Mignon Faget in 1985. This collection is composed predominantly of advertisements from that era. D.H. Holmes, Kreeger’s, and Gus Mayer were among the local retail stores placing ads the Times-Picayune depicting Mignon Faget designer fashions. Her increasing success through the years is documented, as the print ads ...

In honor of Ken Owen's upcoming retirement, here is another in a series of remembrances of his contributions to the library. Did you know that HTML preserves one of the country's larger SciFi and Fantasy collections: We've had the collection for a couple of decades but most of it was never cataloged and to this day is not accessible on Voyager. Now, however, there is a printed SciFi & Fantasy index in the Special Collections reading room that is cross-referenced by author and title, thanks to Ken Owen. Special Collections created an online description and exhibit about the materials several years ago in honor of Ken's work with the SciFi and Fantasy collection. To learn more about our SciFi & Fantasy collection, to view the online exhibit, and to sing along with the "Space Cadet March," click here . Writtten by Lee Miller.

In honor of Ken Owen's upcoming retirement, here is another in a series of remembrances of his contributions to the library. For researchers studying a wide range of New Orleans topics, Bureau of Governmental Research (BGR) reports are essential. BGR is a non-profit, citizen-supported, independent research organization dedicated to informed public policy-making and the effective use of public resources in the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. BGR also focuses on state and national public policy issues which affect the metropolitan area. Since its founding in 1932, BGR has completed over 1,500 studies, reports or position papers in the areas of municipal finance, governmental structure, metropolitan cooperation, collective bargaining, city charter provisions, tax proposals, civil service, procurement, public bid law procedures, and other aspects of local and state government. The reports would be difficult (if not almost impossible) to use without an index. The public library doesn...

In honor of Ken Owen’s upcoming retirement, here is another in a series of remembrances of his contributions to the library. Within the Louisiana Research Collection’s vertical files is an outstanding collection of art ephemera. It includes art gallery flyers, announcements, press releases, and event invitations extending from about 1910 to the present. A special strength of the collection is invitations to gallery shows. This makes it an excellent resource for discovering which artists exhibited in New Orleans. So, suppose you’re researching an artist and would like to know which New Orleans galleries carried his work? Suppose you have the name of a New Orleans gallery and want to know which artists that gallery exhibited? How would you do that? Where would you go? The only Louisiana library that cross references its art ephemera by gallery and artist is the Louisiana Research Collection. If you look up a particular gallery, you will find a list of the artists that exhibited in that g...

In honor of Ken Owen’s upcoming retirement, here is another in a series of remembrances of his contributions to the library. Suppose you’re doing research in our ephemera collection, come across the names of one or two Louisiana politicians, and want to discover when they ran for office? How would you do that? Where would you go? The only index of Louisiana political ephemera cross-referenced by politicians and the years they ran for office exists in the Louisiana Research Collection, thanks to Ken Owen. But wait! There’s more! Suppose you know the year of a Louisiana election, but don’t have the specific day date? Suppose you have a flyer that says an election was held on May 9, but you don’t know which year? What would you do? Where would you go? The only index of Louisiana political ephemera that tracks the dates of Louisiana elections and cross-references them by day and year exists in the Louisiana Research Collection, thanks to Ken Owen. Ken...

Louisiana specialist Ken Owen is retiring from the Louisiana Research Collection at the end of this month. We are highlighting some of his (many) contributions over the next couple of weeks. -Eira Tansey In a state internationally renowned for the poetic depth and sheer imaginative sweep of its political corruption, state inspector general’s reports carry a special significance. Ken Owen began collecting those reports for the New Orleans metro region ten years ago and the Louisiana Research Collection now has an almost complete collection for our part of the state. Where can a researcher find an index to those reports? Not at the State Archives. Not even at the State Inspector General’s office. The only index to state inspector general’s reports exists at the Louisiana Research Collection; and, that index has been available to researchers online for several years, thanks to Ken Owen. To learn more about state inspector generals reports and to view the online index, click here . Written...