In 1940, the patient population was between 400 and 450 and a massive renovation was underway. The improved hospital created individual rooms for 450 patients and the 13” thick concrete walls made the buildings as fireproof as possible. Fire was…

Emma Barrett, a self-taught jazz pianist and vocalist, was born on March 25, 1897, and began performing in venues across New Orleans at just twelve years old. [1] Despite being unable to read music, Barrett was often in high demand and quickly…

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 1974. The artifacts, oral histories, images, and…

Club My-O-My was a female impersonator club that originated and ended in the French Quarter. It flourished after first being kicked out of an informal, after-hours home in a fur warehouse in the Vieux Carre in the early 1930s, according to oral…

In 1909, Newcomb's School of Music building, which was built between 1850-60, was leased from the Tulane Educational Fund to house the new program. This building served as the home of the music program until 1918, when the college moved to…

The French Opera House opened on December 2, 1859. Operas were held in the city as early as 1791, but the opening of the French Opera House heralded a new era of grand opera in New Orleans. [1] The French Opera House was closed during the Civil War…

Imagine yourself in a mule-drawn streetcar or private carriage being transported to Exposition grounds. Hear the hooves on a shell road constructed for the occasion. You arrive at this Main Entrance. Its architecture reflects that of the gigantic…