The New Orleans Police Department's first motorcycle unit on display in 1911, an early indication of the NOPD's continuing effort to modernize operations. [Louisiana Photograph Collection. Municipal Government Series; NOPD Series] | The unveiling of the McDonogh Monument in Lafayette Square, December 28, 1898. In more recent times, the monument and the man it honors, John McDonogh, benefactor of New Orleans' public schools, have encountered controversy--first in the late 1950s, when the segregated McDonogh Day ceremonies were boycotted by African American students, and, in the late 1980s and 1990s, when many of the schools removed the name of McDonogh, a slave holder, from above their doors. The statue still stands in Lafayette Square, but McDonogh's legacy to the city's children has been given a second, more critical examination. [Louisiana Photograph Collection. Louisiana Photograph Collection] |
New Orleans is known for its extensive medical facilities, from Charity Hospital and Touro Infirmary to University Hospital and Tulane University Hospital. This 1915 postcard reminds us that many older hospitals have not survived the modernization of medical care. The Presbyterian Hospital site is now occupied by Rabouin Vocational School. [Louisiana Postcard Collection: Hospitals] | The annual "Orphan's Day" picnic in City Park, ca. 1950s. Although the picnic shelters in the park have changed little, nuns in heavy habits are no longer a familiar sight in New Orleans, and the city's once numerous orphan asylums have also largely disappeared. [Louisiana Photograph Collection. Municipal Government Collection; City Park Commission Series] |
This notice reminds us that boxing was a popular spectator sport in the Crescent City during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also recalls the existence of a premiere gymnasium facility at the corner of Prytania Street and Washington Avenue. Benjamin Franklin High School later used the old Southern Athletic Club facility as the remote site for its gym. Recently the structure's new owners converted the prime location in the middle of the Garden District to residential use. [City Archives. Dept. of Police and Public Buildings Records] | |
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The S.S. President is pictured on this 1964 postcard. The vessel provided harbor tours during the daytime hours and dance trips at night. For several years it was one of the most popular venues for the evening concerts presented by the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. The President left the Crescent City riverfront in 1988 and now functions as a dockside casino on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. [Louisiana Postcard Collection: Boats] | The Crescent City owes its unique character to a succession of ethnic groups that have melted down to make us what we are today. Some groups have been so completely assimilated into the local fabric that we have few, if any, physical reminders of their contributions. All the more important, therefore, are paper memories such as this program for what was a memorable event for Germans in New Orleans during the nineteenth century. The Saenger-Halle itself did not stand for long at Lee Circle and not too many years after its demolition New Orleans Public Library's main Carnegie building rose on its site. [Rare Vertical File: Programs--Concerts] |
One of the real characters of the Crescent City's past was "Count" Arnaud Cazenave, founder of Arnaud's Restaurant in the Vieux Carre. In this 1939 letter to Mayor Robert Maestri, Cazenave discusses the condition of a property next to the restaurant and alludes to difficulties with the fledgling Vieux Carre Commission over his plans for the structure. His simultaneous contribution of $100 to the Maestri campaign fund is, to say the least, verrrrrry interrrrrresting! [City Archives. Mayor Robert S. Maestri Records] | |
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