Tulane University's
Louisiana Research Collection

In 1971, Mrs. B. Stanley Nelson (Mary Hutson) of New Orleans donated some of her father's papers to Tulane University.  Charles W. Hutson (1840-1936) had been a literature professor, author, and artist at Louisiana State University during Reconstruction, who later settled in New Orleans. LaRC Manuscripts Collection 563 is made up of Charles Hutson's draft typescript translation from French into English of the bulk of J. F. Lelièvre's 1838 work, Nouveau jardinier de la Louisiane, plus handwritten notes and newspaper clippings. The only dated item in the collection is a newspaper clipping from 1921. The text describes plant species most successfully grown in Louisiana in the early 19th century, covering both ornamental and edible plants. Having access to the books of the Louisiana Research Collection, preliminary research quickly turned up the original 1838 book in French, as well as an elegant, different translation of it into English, published in the 21st cent...

LaRC Manuscripts Collection 519 holds letters written to Lucy and Mary Smith of New Orleans by close friends who were members of President Woodrow Wilson's family.   The Wilsons met the Smiths at a summer resort in Virginia, early in the twentieth century. Although not biologically related, in these letters they jokingly call each other cousins.  Lucy R. Smith (born around 1864) and her sister Mary R. Smith (around 1868-1943) lived for many years at 1468 Henry Clay Ave. in New Orleans.  Letter authors represented include Edith Wilson, Jessie Wilson Sayre, Ray Stannard Baker, Francis B. Sayre, and President Wilson's daughter, Margaret Woodrow Wilson (1886-1944).   Most notable are the early 1940s letters written by Margaret from Pondicherry, India, where she lived at the religious community, Sri Aurobindo Ashram.   In one of these letters to Lucy and Mary Smith, she philosophically reflects on memories of New Orleans, racial issues, and World War II, sen...

LaRC Manuscripts Collection 518 is a grouping of family papers (1869-1944) from the Lester family of Binghamton, N.Y.    It is made up of numerous family photographs, predominantly formal individual portraits but also travel photographs, post cards, death announcements, a wedding invitation and other items of social ephemera. Most items are mounted in a large ornate bound album, and a few twentieth-century photographs are in envelopes.  Most of the mounted photographs are uncaptioned, so not a great deal is known about the identity of individuals, but funeral notices show that Herbert W. Lester died Nov. 26, 1894 (aged 20 years), and Richard W. Lester died April 20, 1895 (aged 51 years). Photographs were made in studios in various places including Binghamton, Chicago, and Milwaukee. The elegant album primarily highlights the family's adults and a few children or small groups, but the creative arranger of the volume organized a double page to feature babies. Ca...

James Howard Mitcham (1917-1996), a native of Mississippi, was an author, artist, gallery owner, and gourmet cook, best known for his cookbooks which specialize in seafood. He lived at different times in Greenwich Village, Provincetown Mass., the Gulf Coast, and New Orleans.  He has been described as a French Quarter bohemian and a Renaissance man.  His stationery described him as the Creole seafood gourmet.  Howard Mitcham donated his papers to Tulane in 1977. The Louisiana Research Collection holds both the author's manuscript (LaRC Manuscripts Collection 483) and the resulting published book, Fishing on the Gulf Coast (New Orleans, Hermit Crab Press, 1959), SH 464 .S6M5 LACOLL.  The archival collection primarily consists of an edited page proof for Fishing on the Gulf Coast , which was intended as a casual guidebook to catching and cooking fish from the Gulf waters off Louisiana and Mississippi. The text is witty and has been illustrated by th...

This weekend's devastating flooding in south Louisiana, to the west of New Orleans, has left at least seven people dead and thousands of homes and businesses damaged.   Today's Times-Picayune leads with the story of residents of Baker, Louisiana, who needed to evacuate their home because of the current flooding.   August 29, 2016, will be the eleventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. Tulane University and Howard-Tilton Memorial Library collect historical and creative works relating to Hurricane Katrina.  The library catalog lists 799 items  (subject keyword search for phrase hurricane katrina) across Howard-Tilton stacks, Louisiana Research Collection, Hogan Jazz Archive, Rare Books, Government Documents, Music & Media, Vorhoff Library, Architecture Library, Amistad Research Center, Rudolph Matas Library of the Health Sciences, and through the internet. Archival collections in LaRC which contain items dealing with ...

LaRC Manuscripts Collection 394 (K. W. Pedersen photograph collection) contains images of the McFadden House in New Orleans, photographed by Charles L. Franck and associates, and collected by gardener K. W. Pedersen. Included are numerous monochrome photographs of the gardens of the estate, as well as the opulent interior of the mansion. Several are large panoramic prints, emphasizing the expansive grounds and gardens. All are undated but were made between 1919 and 1955. Kristian Vilhelm Gumme Pedersen (1896-1981), born in Jordlose, Denmark, came to the United States in 1921 and was naturalized in 1925. Later he used Wilhelm or William as a middle name. He worked for many years as a gardener at City Park (the location of the McFadden mansion), and later as head gardener at Tulane University until his retirement in 1961, when he returned to Denmark. Charles L. Franck and associates had a photographic studio at 409 Baronne Street.   Franck was active in this...

The Louisiana Research Collection is well known for its older, deep archives and monographs.  But the collections continuously grow over time, up to and including the present year, representing publications which are creative literary works, as well as works resulting from research in various disciplines.   The following is a selection of 2016 imprints which are already cataloged and accessible in the Schiro Reading Room (many of these also have circulating copies in the main Howard-Tilton stacks).  More books are on order and in process at all times.   To discover details about these and other new books in LaRC, you can search the Classic Catalog . Afton Villa : the birth and rebirth of a nineteenth-century Louisiana garden / Call Number: SB466.U7 A388 2016 The amazing crawfish boat / Call Number: SH380.92.U55 L38 2016 Bloody Mary's guide to hauntings, horrors, and dancing with the dead : true stories from the voodoo queen of Ne...