Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

Susan Larson interviewed Lee Miller this week for her radio program The Reading Life on WWNO/NPR.    She asked him about Tulane's Louisiana Research Collection—what it is now, as well as its origins.     Under Lee Miller, the Louisiana Research Collection has come to fruition as the merger of two former departments within the Special Collections of the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.   Manuscripts, archival collections, currently published books, rare old books, maps, ephemera, and library materials about Louisiana in many formats have been brought together to form the “LaRC” as we know it today. In addition to upcoming radio broadcasts, you can access the interview here .    (From that page, click on the button next to “ Listen ”).     Posted by Susanna Powers

Claire Strauss was a student at Sophie B. Wright High School in New Orleans, during the nineteen-teens.   Her scrapbook of high school life is part of the Claire Strauss Meyer Papers , 1909-1920s, LaRC Manuscripts Collection 870.   Alongside invitations to baby showers and school papers, she kept memorabilia of the times relating to America’s involvement in World War I. This young girl’s unusual scrapbook includes mounted and loose papers and other objects such as numerous formal photographs, handwritten correspondence, drawings, dried pieces of plants and flowers and other keepsakes, a small mirror, a fur sample, wood samples, crystals from chemistry class, report cards, a prayer card from the Religious School of Congregation Temple Sinai, a spoon, a certificate, postcards, advertisements, World War I era buttons and patches, ribbons, flags, newspaper clippings and other small locally printed items, an invitation and program of her June 12, 1919, graduation...

LaRC’s Manuscripts Collection 866 is made up of the personal and professional papers of Jeannette K. Laguaite of New Orleans.  Dr. Laguaite (1912-2005) was an audiologist, teacher of speech therapy, and an academic administrator at Tulane University School of Medicine during the mid-twentieth century.   Early in her long professional career she taught kindergarten in the New Orleans Public Schools, and also worked as a speech correctionist with children and adults.   During World War II, she served as a Civilian Defense nurse's aide in New Orleans.  She completed her Ph.D. degree in 1952, and then concentrated on scholarly study, teaching, and administration of audiology and speech therapy programs at Tulane University.   Her interests included psychosomatic medicine, particularly clinical hypnosis therapy in speech rehabilitation.   The collection includes thank-you notes from people expressing gratitude for their ability to regain ...

J.P. Depot - Steamboat lndg -  S.S. Louisiana – S.S. Comus – Sugar Refiner – 2 nd . Dist. Ferry – Jackson Brewery. New Orleans from Barracks St. and River looking up.      The Richard L. Brown Photograph Collection (LaRC Manuscripts Collection 787) consists of two groupings of photographs, 1901-1921.   The first is a bound album presented by Mary and Eugene H. Park to Captain Benjamin Michael, to thank him for the Mississippi River boat trip they had taken in 1901.   It features photographs from the tour, presumably mostly by Mr. Park, of ships, landscapes, people, fish, and animals, also adding several 1902 New Orleans scenes, such as Canal Street during the car strike, and another at Mardi Gras time.   The second part of the one-box archival collection is a grouping of photographs, perhaps created by different photographers, depicting scenes in a variety of American cities including Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Boston as well as New Orlea...

LaRC is pleased to announce that the guide to the William Beer papers is now available online . The collection includes Beer's correspondence with many well-known authors of New Orleans literature including George Washington Cable, Grace King, Charles Gayarre, Mary Ashley Townsend and Ruth McEnery Stuart. William Beer was librarian of Tulane's Howard Library and the first librarian of the New Orleans Public Library.  Originally from England, New Orleans became his permanent home as he spent his life travelling the world acquiring rare books and manuscripts for the library.  Through his efforts, the library became a leading repository of rare books, maps and manuscripts.  These materials can still be found in Tulane's Louisiana Research Collection.  Beer played an integral role in the opening of the first free and public library in New Orleans, the New Orleans Public Library.  He acted as both director and librarian of NOPL from 1896-1906.  In addition ...