Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

LaRC Manuscripts Collection 219 is the Jacob Streiffer post card collection, 1900-1960s.  This collection, arranged into small envelopes in one box, by general subject, consists of printed post cards collected by Jacob Streiffer (1902-1969) of New Orleans, who lived at homes on St. Roch Ave. in Gentilly, and later Decatur St. . Most of these post cards date from the early twentieth century and depict street and garden scenes, including of Audubon Park and City Park, the French Quarter, monuments, cemeteries, Carnival, riverfront and other New Orleans views, and African Americans. The post cards in this collection are predominantly drawings or photographs printed in color and unmailed, but a few of the later cards have handwritten or printed messages and were sent through the mail to Jacob Streiffer or his wife. Caption:  a post card mailed to Mrs. J. Streiffer, March 9, 1953, announces a special offer at the Gentilly Meat Market, 5321 Franklin Ave., New Orleans, ...

The Schiro Reading Room will be closed Saturday, February 14 – Tuesday, February 17, 2015.     For weekend hours of the main Howard-Tilton Memorial Library building, see the hours listing on the library web site .     Lundi Gras and Mardi Gras are Tulane University holidays. To learn about New Orleans Carnival celebrations of the past, please visit the online Carnival Collection , featuring images of more than 5,500 original float and costume designs held in the Louisiana Research Collection.     The digitized collection ensures preservation of these colorful creative images, and provides open access across the world.     Have a happy and safe Mardi Gras! Caption: Krewe of Proteus 1892, costume 33, as preserved in the online Carnival Collection, Louisiana Digital Library and the Tulane Digital Library.   For more about the 1892 Proteus parade costume designs, see Storehouse , featuring Leon Miller's descriptive narration....

Long-saved Valentines in Bowman family papers, 1815-1972  (Manuscripts Collection 175, Box 1, Folder 8)  The Bowman family papers include a wide variety of subjects and types of archival items which had been collected over most of two centuries.  The family kept handwritten and typed correspondence, post cards, Valentines and other greeting cards, telegrams, diaries, legal and financial documents, diplomas, certificates, a railroad map, medical papers, life insurance documents, a 1918 passport of Ruth Green Bowman, French World War I rationing stamps for bread, American Red Cross papers, poetry, sheet music, church programs, calling cards and other items of social ephemera including mounted flowers and plants, a pipe, photographs, negatives and contact prints, newspaper clippings and other printed items. An 1815 letter concerns the Battle of New Orleans.  Some text is in French, and typed transcriptions accompany some documents, which always helps ...

Browsing the library catalog or the stacks, works by and about Southern author Walker Percy are plentiful, both in the main Howard-Tilton stacks and in Special Collections.    A number of his works have multiple copies in various locations within the library.    Walker Percy’s prevalent descriptive style and subdued mood appear in his famous mid-twentieth century New Orleans novel, The Moviegoer , winner of the 1962 National Book Award for Fiction. But lesser known are his works classified as nonfiction.      Called “Walker Percy’s Weirdest Book” by Tom Bartlett in the Chronicle of Higher Education (May 10, 2010), Lost in the Cosmos is very unlike The Moviegoer.    However, categorizing this book as nonfiction is also imperfect, because the reader who persists through the first three-fourths of it is treated to a small, beautifully written science fiction story about space travel, astronaut couples, and children born in space...

The Schiro Reading Room will be closed Saturday, January 17 through Monday, January 19, 2015, in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. The annual MLK Week for Peace will also be observed in the coming week. Before coming for a personal visit to the Schiro Reading Room, it is always a good idea to check our hours page on the LaRC website. Have a peaceful and good weekend.

LaRC Manuscripts Collection 35 is made up of personal and professional papers of Robert Glenk  (1870-1950), who was born in Germany and brought to the United States as an infant. He lived in Philadelphia and later New Orleans. After being educated as a scientist, Robert Glenk worked as a chemist with the Louisiana Sugar Experiment Station, 1899-1904. Mr. Glenk was a founder of the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans in 1905, and was its curator from 1906 to 1935. He retired from the museum in 1948. His interests were agriculture, horticulture, fairs and festivals, and promotion of New Orleans. He was married to Dr. Clara Theresa Israel Glenk (b. 1873). Included in the Robert Glenk papers are handwritten and typed correspondence, post cards, telegrams, programs, certificates, diaries, wills, financial documents, items of social ephemera, Glenk family photographs, photographs of Louisiana exhibits at fairs and expositions, manuscripts, class notes, experiments, ...

The Schiro Reading Room will be open during normal hours through Tuesday, December 23, 2014, and then close for Winter Recess.    Normal hours will resume on Monday, January 5, 2015. Please note, however, that the main Howard-Tilton Memorial Library building has closed down because of construction, and tentatively plans to resume operations on Monday, January 5, 2015.   More information about the construction project is available on the library web site. Have a safe and happy holiday season, and a prosperous new year!   Caption:  handmade glass ornaments, Newcomb Art Dept. Holiday Studio Sale, Dec. 5, 2014. Photograph and post by Susanna Powers