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Madame John's Legacy
Madame John’s Legacy is a National Historic Landmark and a property of the Louisiana State Museum. Throughout its history the true stories of those families and individuals who owned or have been…
Aristide Mary
Aristide Mary’s politics embodied Creole activism in New Orleans. A native of the city, Mary’s mixed race ancestry shaped his experiences and political ideas. Educated in Paris, Mary became a lawyer…
Plessy's Legacies
In the immediate aftermath of Plessy v. Ferguson, the case itself received relatively little attention. Homer Plessy paid the twenty-five dollar fine for violating the Separate Car Act and went to…
A New Orleans Story
The Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) case is well-known in United States history. As the Supreme Court case that established the doctrine of “separate but equal,” it ushered in the Jim Crow era of legal…
Caesar Carpentier Antoine
Caesar Carpentier Antoine was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 10, 1836, to a prominent Creole family. His family were part of an established network of Creoles of color in Louisiana that…
Rodolphe and Daniel Desdunes
Born in New Orleans in 1849, Rodolphe Desdunes actively participated in the city’s Creole social and political scene, eventually co-founding the Comité des Citoyens (Citizens’ Committee) in 1891. As…
Madame Josephine Decuir
By the 1870s, steamboats carried passengers up and down the Mississippi River, docking in the ports of major cities like New Orleans. Here, in July 1872, Captain John Benson denied Josephine Decuir…
The Hermann-Grima House
The Hermann-Grima House at 820 St. Louis Street, which today operates as an historic house museum, was a site of enslavement from its construction in 1831 through the Civil War. At least sixty people…
Louis A. Martinet and Albion Tourgée
Louis A. Martinet was a key player in the fight for civil rights in New Orleans. Born December 28, 1849, his multiracial identity as the son of a free woman of color and a Belgian man placed him…
Streets on the Table Episode 6: Dr. Norman C. Francis
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table Episode 5: Charles McKenna
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table Episode 4: Georges, Jasper, and Celestin
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table Episode 3: Margaret Elizabeth
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table Episode 2: Dr. Sherwood "Woody" Gagliano
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table Episode 1: Allen Toussaint
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Streets on the Table: Introduction
In 2019, the New Orleans City Council launched a city-wide effort to change the names of streets honoring white supremacists. While the city implemented its renaming efforts, a clear need for an…
Frontin, An Enslaved Child from the Boré Plantation
On January 21, 1783, Étienne de Boré, an enslaver and owner of the Boré Plantation located within today’s Audubon Park, visited a public slave auction in order to sell two enslaved boys. Alexandro…
The Forty Artisans of the Boré Plantation
In October of 1796, General Victor Collot, a spy for the French colonial government, arrived in New Orleans after a military expedition down the Mississippi River creating maps of Spanish land…
Stories of the Enslaved Within Today’s Audubon Park
Basile, Achilles, Congo and many other enslaved people labored on Étienne de Boré’s plantation within today’s Audubon Park. Alongside planting and harvesting sugar cane, enslaved labor on the Boré…
Archaeology of The Melpomene Neighborhood During Reconstruction
During 2013 investigations in City Square 350, archaeologists excavated a large and well-constructed brick-lined privy shaft, producing a rich assemblage of glass containers and ceramic vessels, along…
The Melpomene Neighborhood Before 1880
In the Colonial Era, the area that eventually became the Melpomene neighborhood and later utilized for the Guste Homes was located in a low-lying backswamp zone at the rear of the Livaudais plantation…
Archaeology of the Melpomene Neighborhood at the Turn of the Twentieth Century: Excavation of a Privy at 1304 Howard/LaSalle
In the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, many of the people who lived in the Melpomene neighborhood of Central City rented their residences with some addresses seeing rapid turnover. …
The Melpomene Neighborhood, 1880-1900
By the early 1900s, the Melpomene neighborhood in Central City was a densely populated urban neighborhood, where many residents worked in occupations related to shipping, particularly in the nearby…
The Salvaggio Household: Early 20th Century Archaeology of the Melpomene Neighborhood
In 2013, archaeological firms conducted test excavations in City Square 383 in the Melpomene neighborhood, the city block once bounded by Erato, Freret, Thalia, and South Robertson (or Locust)…