Longue Vue and the Sterns

Longue Vue House and Gardens, a local National Historic Landmark, was originally the home of Edgar and Edith Stern, prominent philanthropists during the twentieth century. Although damaged by Hurricane Katrina, the grounds and building have been restored and the estate continues to serve as an educational and cultural resource for the community and visitors.

As part of an NHPRC grant for archival processing, Lisa Lewis, archivist at Longue Vue, was required to submit a MARC record to OCLC representing their historical collection. As they are not members, she requested a partnership with Tulane’s Special Collections for this purpose. We collaborated with her to create and contribute the record to the WorldCat database, entitled Longue Vue House and Gardens historic collection.

Within Tulane’s manuscript holdings, we have related material in the Edgar B. Stern collection (Manuscripts Collection 235), which includes further Stern family documents, as well business records of Lehman, Stern, and Co. and subsidiary cotton merchants in New Orleans, dating back to the nineteenth century. This collection includes a range of massive handwritten ledger books, up to 59 cm.

For more recent information and artifacts about Longue Vue, there are several folders in the Louisiana Collection Vertical File with brochures through 2009, invitations, mailed promotional material, calendars, newsletters, auction programs and other printed ephemeral material. This resource is built through cumulative contributions from our friends in the community. The 2007 post card featured as an illustration was donated to the Louisiana Collection for the vertical file by art scholar and author, Jessie Poesch.

Caption: mailed post card publicizing the July 14, 2007, Annual Ice Cream Day at Longue Vue. For details of the upcoming Ice Cream Day scheduled for Sat., July 11, 2009, 10:00 am to noon, click here.

Posted by Susanna Powers