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Misbeliefs: A Linguistic Look at a Beloved New Orleans Fruit
The residents of New Orleans have a history of creating unusual pronunciations of words. Local street names provide common examples of New Orleanians’ inventive pronunciations, such as Burgundy Street…
Sassy Servants and Belligerent Bridgets: Irish Domestic Workers in the 19th Century
Paper Monuments Project #015: Starting in the 1840s up to the Civil War Irish immigration to New Orleans was at a fever pitch. The wave of Irish immigrants, many of whom were women, coincided with an…
Desire Standoff
Paper Monuments Project #002: The New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party and multiple branches of law enforcement within the Desire housing projects in the city’s Ninth Ward engaged in one of…
Irish Canal Workers: Defying Odds and Defying Expectations
Paper Monuments Project #025:
The Funeral of André Cailloux: Fallen Captain of the Louisiana Native Guards Buried July 29, 1863
Paper Monument #002: Thousands lined Esplanade Avenue to witness the funeral procession for Captain André Cailloux, the one of the early organizers of the Louisiana Native Guards, the first all-black…
Cloverland Dairy
Although dairies are often left out of tales of New Orleans food history, they played an important role in early New Orleanians lives. Through specialty traditions like Creole cream cheese, New…
Carnival on Wheels 1887
On the evening of February 23, 1887, a crowd lined St. Charles Avenue to witness a procession of lanterns floating like a swarm of fireflies through the darkened street. First came the bandwagon,…
State Cycling Championship of 1891 at the Fair Grounds
In the late nineteenth century, bicycles appeared on city streets, country roads, and race tracks. Cycle racing in New Orleans rose with a tide of interest in sports—recreational and spectator—among…
Audubon Park Race Track, Cyclists hold League meet in 1887
In September of 1887, New Orleans cyclists held the 3rd annual meet of the League of American Wheelmen (LAW), Louisiana Division, at the Audubon Park Race Track. Originally a horse racing track, it…
First Cycling Races Held on a Track in New Orleans 1887
In the 1880s, along with the rise of spectator and participatory sports, cycling races appeared in New Orleans. The city's first bicycle club, the New Orleans Bicycle Club, formed in 1881. All members…
Cycling Races at Audubon Driving Park Race Track 1887-1890
The Audubon Driving Park Track was used in the late 1880s as a horse racing track. ("Driving" referred to horse riding.) Audubon Park, built in 1879, had been the site of the World's Industrial Cotton…
The Clubhouse of the Louisiana Cycling Club: Completed 1890
In August of 1890, work was completed on the clubhouse of the Louisiana Cycling Club (LCC) at 1637 Octavia Street. The Queen Anne-style building still stands at that address. The party celebrating its…
New Orleans Bicycle Club: 1892 Clubhouse
In 1892, the New Orleans Bicycle Club celebrated the opening of their new clubhouse in the Garden District, at the corner of General Taylor and Baronne. The plans were drafted by W.C. Williams and…
1887 Thanksgiving Day Bicycle Road Race
On a crisp Thanksgiving Day in 1887, a crowd gathered beneath the bare branches of the sycamore trees in the center of Canal Street. Bisected by multiple street railway beds and flanked by the…
1886 Cycling Tour: New Orleans to Boston
Early on Easter morning 1886, around a hundred people gathered at the Henry Clay Statue outside A. M. Hill Jewelers at St. Charles and Canal. Hill, captain of the New Orleans Bicycle Club, stood…
Founding of New Orleans Bicycle Club, 1881
In 1881, the New Orleans Bicycle Club formed in a building at Commercial Street and St. Charles, inside the jewelry and pen shop of A. M. Hill.
A. M. Hill arrived in New Orleans at nineteen years…
The Great Poor Boy Debate
Cartoonist and artist Bunny Matthews, radio personality and food writer Tom Fitzmorris, and Vance Vaucresson of Vaucresson's Sausage Company engage in a lively debate regarding the proper way to order…
Nix Methadone Clinic
The Carrollton neighborhood suffered through a heroin epidemic in the 1970s. Heroin use would decline throughout the U.S. in the 1980s as cocaine and crack use increased.
An addiction treatment…
Origins of Maple Leaf Bar
The Maple Leaf Bar, one of the city's longest operating music clubs, is a haven for local music and has been drawing crowds from New Orleans and throughout the world since the venue opened in…
City Hall Cafeteria Sit-In
Paper Monument Poster #008: The City Hall Sit-In of 1963, a direct action led by the Rev. Avery C. Alexander, served as a pivotal moment in the history of the civil rights movement and racial equality…
Segregation in City Park
Until 1958, all park amenities, including the playground, were restricted to white residents. African American children and families were banned from entering the park. In a 1995 interview, the late…
Peristyle
The Peristyle was created as a platform for dancing while listening to music performances at the nearby band stand. It was originally called the paristyleum and cost $15,330 when erected in 1907. The…
Famous Oaks
City Park is known for having one of the largest collections of mature live oaks in the world. The oldest is rumored to be up to 800 years old, although most sources claim the oak's age is closer to…
Langles Bridge
The Langles Bridge is located near the south side of the Timken Center, formerly known as the Casino building. This original stone bridge is dedicated to Miss Angele M. Langles; her estate…