Donors making a difference: March/April 2018 acquisitions

Mrs. Rufus C. Harris' certificate as a member
of the 1939 New York World's Fair
Louisiana women's advisory committee.

The Louisiana Research Collection depends on donors dedicated to preserving our past. During March and April, donors helped permanently preserve materials pertaining to a wide range of New Orleans and Louisiana fields, including fish and fisheries, LGBTQ life in the French Quarter, civic associations, vintage real estate photographs, Carnival, family life in the early 1900s, and Rufus C. Harris, who was president of Tulane University from 1937 to 1960.

Henry L. Bart, Jr., of New Orleans has donated field notebooks, correspondence, specimen collecting permits, and other materials pertaining to Professor Royal D. Suttkus (1920 - 2009), biologist, natural historian, and head of the Tulane Natural History Museum (now The Tulane University Biodiversity Research Institute).

Louis M. Bernard, Jr., of New Orleans donated four binders of photographs taken for the French Quarter magazine The Rooster, which was published from 1987 to 1989 and served the New Orleans LGBTQ community.

Janie Creel of Metairie donated the records of the Metairie Terrace Civic Association, including minutes, reports, correspondence, and other records.

Margaret Blum Epstein of New Orleans donated roughly three hundred real estate photographs collected by her late husband, Joseph Hugo Epstein, Jr. The photographs extend as far back as the 1920s, were taken for real estate records and advertisements, sometimes include information such as building cost and purchase price, occasionally include photographs of grounds and out-buildings, and often include street scenes that record the hustle and bustle of city life over three decades.

Thomas Longmire of New Orleans donated a photo album of Cecile Degelos Landry containing photos of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast from between approximately 1900 and 1920. They are a wonderful record of family and social life in the city and along the Gulf Coast; particularly notable is an image of the 1920 Rex float.

Gary Mannina of New Orleans donated invitations for a variety of civic, social, and krewe events pertaining to the 2018 Carnival season.

Judith Guillot Meibaum of Natchitoches, Louisiana, donated a brochure for McKenzie's, a New Orleans chain of bakeries that began in 1936. It grew to more than 50 McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppes before closing in 2000. The brochure records recipes for fillings for McKenzie's pastry shells.

Cokie Roberts of Washington, DC, donated additions to the papers of  her mother, Member of Congress Lindy Boggs. The Louisiana Research Collection preserves the papers of Lindy and Hale Boggs, which comprise more than 1,600 linear feet of congressional and personal papers.

Louise Saik of Metairie has donated six scrapbooks created by her mother, Mary Louise Walker Harris, wife of Rufus C. Harris. The scrapbooks pertain largely to Rufus Harris' career as Dean of Tulane Law School (1927-1937) and President of Tulane University (1937-1960). The scrapbooks also shed light on Mrs. Harris’ role at Tulane University and the couple’s involvement in New Orleans society and social life from the 1930s to the 1950s.