Featured Stories
Rigolets Bridge
The Rigolets Bridge opened on June 9, 1930, as one of the first public bridges crossing Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana. It spanned almost 3,900 feet and carried U.S. Highway 90 connecting New Orleans to Slidell. The bridge is located at the edge of…
Joseph Lavigne Store
Devout Catholics and energetic members of a radical integrated Masonic lodge, the Herrimans also were regular participants in a remarkable series of seances that were led by their friend, neighbor, and fellow lodge-member, Henry Louis Rey. Born into…
La Village des Chapitoulas
New Orleans is an Indian town. When Frenchmen and Africans arrived in the bend of the Mississippi that would eventually be re-named New Orleans, they encountered a place that had been home to Native Americans for hundreds of years.
We know from…
Recent Stories
The Ancestors: Marie Laveau's Tomb
St. Louis Cemetery #1 on Basin Street, once outside the city limits, is the oldest existing cemetery in New Orleans. Towering above-ground tombs remind visitors of New Orleans’ high water table and French heritage. It is in this cemetery that our…
The Spirit: Marie Laveau & Congo Square
While Marie Laveau worshipped at Catholic Mass in St. Louis Cathedral, she likely practiced Vodou at Congo Square. While no official documents place Laveau at Congo Square, many eyewitness accounts reported seeing her there. Congo Square is an…
The Home: Marie Laveau’s House
Marie Laveau’s home once stood on the site of present-day 1020 and 1022 St. Ann Street. Marguerite Darcantel, Laveau’s mother, and Catherine Henry, Laveau’s grandmother, raised Marie Laveau at the property. Marie Laveau went on to raise her own…
The Church: Marie Laveau at St. Louis Cathedral
Marie Laveau was born September 10, 1801, to Marguerite Darcantel and Charles Laveaux, both free people of color. New Orleans had a sizable population of free people of color, due in part to Spanish colonial law that allowed enslaved people to save…
Sintes Boat Works: Life and Business on the Banks of Lake Pontchartrain
In 1952, Lawrence Sintes Sr. opened Sintes Boat Works on the edge of Orleans Marina in Lake Pontchartrain with his oldest son, Lawrence Sintes Jr. The Sintes family’s move to the area, known as the West End neighborhood, coincided with a…
African Presence in Algiers
On December 31, 2019, the Algiers Tricentennial Committee and the Algiers community of New Orleans dedicated this historic Middle Passage marker at what is now the Algiers Courthouse honoring those who perished and those who survived the…
Featured Tours
Shadow Steeds of the Crescent City
10 Locations ~ Curated by Lacar Musgrove, University of New OrleansCarville: The National Leprosarium
9 Locations ~ Curated by Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease MuseumNew Orleans Historical
A project by University of New Orleans and Tulane UniversityNew Orleans Historical is a web and mobile platform for sharing stories & scholarship about New Orleans and the surrounding area. A project of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans and the Communication Department of Tulane University, New Orleans Historical is a free app available on your Android or iPhone smartphone or tablet as well as on the web.