Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

Arthur Hardy, a premiere authority on Mardi Gras in New Orleans, has donated to Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) Carnival ball invitations and programs for more than eighty krewes. Ranging from Achaeans to Zeus, the donation is a major addition to TUSC's Carnival collection. Tulane University Special Collections preserves one of the world’s largest Carnival collections with materials documenting more than 300 krewes. “Arthur’s donation is a tremendous help in making our collection more complete,” said Leon Miller, curator of the Louisiana Research Collection. “In particular, the donation’s focus on smaller krewes,  neighborhood krewes, and krewes that were only briefly in existence will be invaluable in helping scholars extend Carnival research to broad facets of New Orleans society and culture.” Included in Hardy’s donation are programs and invitations from fifteen LGBTQ krewes. “Materials from these krewes are becoming increasingly difficult to obtain,” said Har...

In honor of the 150th anniversary of Lafcadio Hearn’s arrival in the United States, Special Collections is hosting a screening of “Kwaidan,” the critically acclaimed horror film directed by Masaki Kobayashi based on four of Lafcadio Hearn’s ghost stories. Special Collections will also have on display books from its Hearn collection, and free pizza! October 25 from 6:30 to 10:00 p.m. in Jones Hall, Room 102. https://www.facebook.com/events/391951208363432/

On October 11, 1886, Josephine Louise Newcomb wrote to the Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund donating $100,000 for use in establishing the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College. In celebration of this day, 133 years ago, Susan Tucker and Beth Willinger, editors, are launching a website to recognize the importance of Josephine Louise Newcomb’s letter writing and contribution to women’s higher education. The Letters of Josephine Louise Newcomb The website provides direct access to more than 130 of her letters (transcribed here for the first time) and indirect access to 350 more, thus encouraging others to interpret her life and contributions more fully and with greater fidelity to her own vision. Many of the letters are from the Louisiana Research Collection’s McConnell family papers (LaRC1156) and Schmidt Family Papers (LaRC-207). Happy Reading!

Tulane University Special Collections announces a new exhibit: Captive Voices: Hearing, Seeing and Imagining Angola Prison September 17, 2019 – November 29, 2019. In coordination with the Tulane University Reading Project and One Book New Orleans’ 2019 selection, Vengeance , by Tulane Professor of English Zachary Lazar, this exhibit uses materials from the Tulane University Special Collections and Lazar’s personal archives to reveal often hidden aspects of the Louisiana State Penitentiary. The exhibit includes drawings from the Curtis and Davis architectural firm of the prison’s 1954 rebuilding, construction photographs by noted architectural photographer Frank Lotz Miller documenting the inmate construction crew, prison-related ephemera created by various political and social welfare organizations, selections of the inmate produced Angolite magazine, a multi-media display showcasing the music of former inmate Robert Pete Williams, and manuscripts, artifacts, and other inmate creat...

Photograph of Monte M. Lemann inscribed "to Edgar B. Stern, outstanding citizen and my dear friend." LaRC preserves Stern's papers. Thomas B. Lemann of New Orleans has donated the papers of his father, noted attorney Monte Lemann, to the Tulane University Louisiana Research Collection. Montefiore Mordecai Lemann (1884 - 1959) was a nationally prominent New Orleans attorney who, among his many significant accomplishments, helped modernize Louisiana law, supported good government initiatives, and promoted legal aid. Lemann was born in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, the son of Bernard and Harriet Friedheim Lemann. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tulane University in 1902 and a second BA from Harvard in 1903. He then graduated with honors from Harvard Law School in 1906 while also receiving a law degree from Tulane University in 1907. Lemann returned to New Orleans to join the law firm of Saunders and Gurley. In 1909 he made partner (with the firm becoming Hall, Mo...

Ward Reception Room, Military Hospital, Havana Cuba George Alfred Hero, III, of Belle Chasse, Louisiana, has donated a scrapbook of  Roger Post Ames. Ames (1870- 1914) was a New Orleans physician and yellow fever expert. A graduate of the Tulane Medical Department (1890), Ames served as an ambulance student at Charity Hospital and assistant house surgeon at Hotel Dieu. He was associated with the United State Public Health Service in New Orleans and served as a surgeon during the Spanish-American War. Ames believed that yellow fever was not contagious and that the disease was transmitted by mosquitoes. He served as a contract surgeon with Major Walter Reed during the famous yellow fever experiments in Cuba at Camp Lazar, where he contracted the disease during his service. Dr. Ames was 44 years old when he died on November 15, 1914, at Port Barrios, Guatemala. The scrapbook documents his travels to Hawaii, the Philippines, China, Japan, and Cuba. Most of the images are commercial...

LaRC has recently placed online the diary of Simon M. Bott, private in the 120th infantry regiment of Ohio (E Company). Bott was a Union soldier whose regiment was in Louisiana from 1863-1865. He was mustered out of the army while in New Orleans on June 5, 1865. Private Bott was age 29 when he enlisted in Plain Township, Wayne County, Ohio, August 15, 1862, in Company E, 120th Ohio volunteer Infantry. Under Sherman he took part in the battle of Chickasaw Bayou. Mr. Bott also participated in the battles of Arkansas Post, Thompsons Hill, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, Black River Bridge, siege of Vicksburg, siege of Jackson, Brandon. He was on the City Belle during the Red River expedition when it fell to the Confederacy and was burned. Interesting diary entries include a brief mention of an injured friend in a lone entry on April 4th 1864, dated accounts of marching from Alexandria to Morganza (May 12th to the 21st), the burial of a C. Bandanston on Aug 11, 1864, and Bott’s ...