Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

New Orleans has a rich tradition of locally creating and producing theatrical performances.  The Louisiana Research Collection has holdings of various types which document the work and life of these theater groups, including archival collections, books, and ephemera.    Two of these archival collections are Group Theatre records, 1926-1938 (Manuscripts Collection 80) and Le Petit Theatre records, 1919-1966 (Manuscripts Collection 368). The Group Theatre of New Orleans was a nonprofit community project active during the 1920s and 1930s which was "dedicated to the principle of experiment in all branches of the theatre arts." Productions were presented at Newcomb College and other venues, and included a wide range of classic, modern, local, and foreign works.  The Studio provided instruction to those interested in acting, directing, and the technical side of the theater.    This collection consists of organizational and related records of t...

LaRC intern Kathryn Rumer LaRC intern Kathryn Rumer recently completed her MLIS from the LSU SLIS program . Kathryn made significant contributions to the Louisiana Research Collection since she began volunteering with us two years ago, and during her time as our first Pie Dufour Carnival intern. Kathryn was very involved with the creation of LaRC’s online Carnival collection . This included creating metadata for approximately 6,000 float and costume designs, digitizing the costume designs, and uploading the digital images and the metadata to the LOUIS Digital Library to create the online Carnival Collection. She also completely reboxed the Carnival ephemera collection, and created an Archon finding aid for the Carnival collection. The Carnival Collection’s finding aid currently has 281 Krewes listed as well as complete and accurate inventory lists of float and costume designs, float bulletins, and photographs. We hope to release this finding aid to the public within the next year. ...

Most of LaRC’s archival collections fall into three basic types-- personal papers, family papers, and organizational records.   But the Ellen Elizabeth Latrobe Wilson Papers (Manuscripts Collection 943) is eclectic and blends elements of all three.   The items in this collection came into existence from 1835-1991, with most of them dating from the 1940s to the 1960s.    Ellen Elizabeth Latrobe Wilson (1919-1991) was born and raised in Baltimore, Md., and later lived in New Orleans for forty years. She was a descendant of Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), the noted architect of the United States capitol, and was married to New Orleans architect Samuel Wilson, Jr. (1911-1993). She served in the Navy during the World War II era. She later became a leader in New Orleans community groups, most prominently as president of the Independent Women's Organization, with interest and involvement in the political issues of the day.   Manuscripts...