M. D. Girard papers
The June 15, 1902, issue of the New Orleans French newspaper, L’Abeille , included an article written by Marie Drivon Girard (1814-1913), in which she painfully laments the volcanic eruption of Mt. Pelee which devastated the Island of Martinique in the Lesser Antilles. At the age of eighty-eight, she recalled her childhood home in Sainte-Lucie, and was torn by the sense of loss caused by the news of the destructive event. New Orleanians of today are also compassionately linked to those in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who are suffering the widespread devastation of this week’s earthquake . French Quarter resident M. D. Girard became a prominent and admired teacher of the French language to the New Orleans community. She authored Histoire des Etats-Unis suivie de L’Histoire de la Louisiane , published in 1881. A biographical memoir, Madame Girard , was written by Grace King in 1922. Our Manuscripts Collection 638 consists mostly of Madame Girard’s French handwritten correspondence and family...