Cover, Tennessee Williams in the attic of722 Toulouse Street, 1977, by Christopher Harris (1994.143.2); above, 722 Toulouse Street, 1937 or 1938, by Richard Koch (1985.120.141); inset, attic stairs, 1993, by Richard Sexton. In the winter of1939, Tennessee Williams lived in a garret room at this address, now part ofTHNOC's complex ofbuildings. 2 THE BEGINNING OF ACAREER: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS ON TOULOUSE STREET

combination of circumstances in room, for which he paid ten dollars a 1938 led Thomas Lanier Williams month, opened onto a dormer window, Ato flee St. Louis and settle in New while the other room with a matching Orleans, a decision that was to prove dormer was occupied by Eloi Bordelon, momentous in shaping his life and his an artist who became a close friend of career. The situation in the Williams the author. Tom wrote to his grandpar­ home was intolerable for him, living as ents, Rev. and Mrs. Walter Dakin, that he did in close proximity to a father the house was owned and operated by a whose attitude toward his sensitive and "lovely Mississippi lady," but apparently artistic older son was little short of con­ there were three landladies who had, the tempt, hearing the almost constant bick­ writer told his mother, seen better days ering of his parents, and watching in and now lived amid their antiques on pained helplessness as his beloved sister the second floor. They were such excel­ Rose slipped further and further away lent cooks that Williams persuaded them from him into the nightmarish world of to open a restaurant for which he provid­ her growing hysteria. ed the motto ("Meals for a Quarter in When his attempt to acquire a posi­ the Quarter") and worked as cashier. tion with the WPA Writers' Project in One of the ladies, a Mrs. Anderson Chicago failed, he headed south in the who, according to Williams, "had a hard hopes of joining Lyle Saxon's WPA team time adjusting herself to the Bohemian in New Orleans. How different his spirit of the Vieux Carre," created havoc Tennessee Williams. Photograph courtesy career might have been had he remained when, after the first floor tenant - a Dorian Major Bennett in Chicago instead of moving to the city photographer - had ignored her which proved to be a liberating factor in complaints about the noise from a party the acquaintance of Rose Bradford, a his life and his work. Edwina Williams he was giving, she poured boiling water guest at the party whose dress was ruined wrote of her son that when he set out on through holes in the floor. She was by the water; she lived with her husband, that journey, "I had the feeling this time, charged with "malicious mischief and dis­ Roark Bradford, in a creole cottage across in one sense, he was never coming back turbing the peace" and her case was tried the street from the rooming house. to me." Those words proved to be the next night at the Third Precinct police Bradford, the night city editor for the prophetic, in both a real and metaphori­ station on Chartres Street. Tom Williams, Times-Picayune, had made a name for cal sense, for never again would Tom live when asked by the judge if she had indeed himself writing books in black dialect, at home for long periods of time, and perpetrated the act with which she was including his most popular work, Of' when next he visited his mother, the accused, cleverly evaded the question by Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), adapt­ young man was hardly the son who had responding that "I thought it was highly ed by the author and Marc Connolly into left the shelter of her nest. improbable that any lady would do such a the long-running Broadway hit Green It was December 1938 when he thing!" His evasion probably spared his Pastures. The Bradfords, whose home was arrived in the French Quarter and pre­ being asked to vacate his room, but a gathering place for writers - William sented himself to Colette and Knute embedded within it is certainly a gentle Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, and John Heldner, artists who knew friends of rebuke of what Mrs. Anderson had done. Steinbeck were among those who enjoyed Tom's in Sr. Louis and who graciously The incident produced several their hospitality - introduced Williams gave him shelter. He was their guest until significant results: a similar episode is to Sam Byrd, a visiting producer who, January l , 1939, when he moved into a described in A Streetcar Named Desire, upon hearing that he was an aspiring rooming house at 722 Toulouse Street. A and the pouring of the water and the trial dramatist, volunteered to read some of photograph of the house from the late became climactic scenes in Vieux Carre, his work. Characteristically, Williams '30s shows it in a romantic state of decay, the 1976 memory play in which "had nothing to show him," since he had a stuccoed building with vines growing he recreated the dramatic incidents of sent all his plays to New York and over one corner and a cast-iron second­ those important months in his life on retained no copies. floor balcony. Williams's third-floor Toulouse Street. In addition, he made If Mrs. Anderson found it difficult

3 to adapt to the "Bohemian" nature of the Quarter, young Tom Williams reveled in it, once he had adjusted himself to the free-wheeling Latin lifestyle there. He professed to having been shocked at a New Year's Eve party to which the Heldners took him, the day before he moved into the room on Toulouse Street, but he was soon to immerse him­ self in that milieu which had originally surprised him. The freedom the city offered transformed him, and the ten­ sion between it and what he termed the "Puritanism" of his nature, instilled by early years living in his grandfather's rec­ tory and the strong influence of Edwina

Tennessee Williams in Jackson Square, 1977, by Christopher Harris (1994.143.1)

WPA and later became a successful inte­ story, insisted that because he was rior decorator in New York, quite a con­ behind in his rent, he had to slide down trast to the portrait of the tubercular sheets to escape the rooming house. artist Nightingale in Vieux Carre. It was Those few months on Toulouse Eloi who introduced Williams to the Street constitute one of the most crucial New Orleans Athletic Club, where the periods in the life of Tennessee dramatist was to swim daily whenever he Williams. He was storing up material was in the city. One indelible impression for later use, and it is here that he set on Ayala's memory involves Mrs. Wire, the story ''Angel in the Alcove," as well one of the landladies at 722 Toulouse - as the one-act "The Lady of Larkspur Wizard, mechanical figure from catalogue it is her name that Williams uses in Lotion" and the late play Vieux Carre, ofthe Musee Mechanique on Royal Street, Vieux Carre - whose parrot would and he used the first name of Eloi around the corner from Williams's rooming perch on the balcony of the second floor Bordelon as the protagonist of the one­ house in 1939. A similar museum was and call out to men passing in the street act "Auto-Da-Fe." In 1939, the Musee featured in Eccentricities of a Nightingale (84-46-L). below, "Come on up, boys, and have a Mechanique at 523 Royal Street, good time." Tennessee, who was always around the corner from the rooming Williams - a strait-laced southern lady fascinated with birds, particularly par­ house, was operated by John Henry of the old school who viewed sexuality as rots, surely would have been impressed Hewlett and his wife, the former a flaw in human nature - was to pro­ by this phenomenon. Lorraine Werlein. The Musee, a collec­ vide him with dramatic material for Ironically, it was a man named Jim tion of charming mechanical figures work he produced for the rest of his life. Parrott who provided the dramatist an and clockwork pictures, must have Eloi Bordelon's brother, Charles exit from the rooming house and made a strong impression upon the Ayala, recalls that the Quarter in those entrance to the next phase of his life. young playwright, for he retained the days was "like a little community where Described by Tennessee in Vieux Carre memory of this magical place until he everybody knew everybody else," and his as an itinerant saxophonist named Sky, needed it in 1964 for Eccentricities of a memories of the rooming house indicate Parrott stayed briefly at the house Nightingale. Mrs. Winemiller related something of how it must have affected before the two of them left for Texas. the story of Albertine, her sister, who, impressionable yo ung Tom Williams. Parrott, who became a pilot and now is with her husband, Mr. Schwarzkopf, Ayala, who was five at the time, lived retired and living in Florida, recalls owned such a museum and met a tragic with his mother in Algiers, and the two those years in his memoirs, Travels with end, unlike the real-life models. of them would ride the ferry across the Tennessee, part of which has appeared in If the 27-year-old Thomas Lanier river every Sunday to bring Eloi a basket the Tennessee Williams Literary journal. Williams could return to the Vieux of food and clean clothes. At the time, In later years, Tennessee, in what may Carre today and see the Toulouse Street Eloi was working as an artist for the or may not have been an apocryphal house, he would hardly recognize it.

4 During renovation in the 1970s , the third floor, where the young playwright launched his career, was removed, the THE case-iron balcony railing was replaced with wood, and a plate-glass window was installed in the front of what was LAST FRONTIER once the photographer's studio. Even though no plaque on the building has indicated its significance in the career of OF BOHEMIA: America's great playwright, chose who TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN NEW ORLEANS know the story of his life may pause to contemplate the building and realize the ex ten c to which his residence there changed the history of American drama. Those critical months of his new existence, away from St. Louis, which he found stultifying, and from the tensions of his family life, months spent in a new and liberating environment where he could be himself and begin for the first time seriously to explore his sexual nature, served to convert the proper young man, wearing a coat and tie and polished shoes, into the bohemian author, and, ulcimately, the greatest American playwright. In a very real sense it can be said that while Thomas Lanier Williams was born in Columbus, Missis sippi, in 1911 , Tennessee was born in a roach-infested, cramped, and romantic garret in a rooming house at Les Eroiles d'un Cirque Ecrange by Tennessee Williams, ca. 1960s. Painting courtesy jack Fricks and Robert Hines 722 Toulouse Street in the French Quarter, the spot he came to love and ennessee Williams first came to Center at the University of Texas at call his spiritual home. Buried though TNew Orleans in the winter of Austin, additional materials are from he may be in Sc. Louis, "a city I loathe," 1938. Soothed by the semi-tropical the playwright's friends and acquain­ surely his spirit wanders the narrow old climate and inspired by the atmos­ tances in New Orleans who have streets of the Vieux Carre, which he phere of the French Quarter, he generously shared their pho­ placed permanently and unforgettably found a place that appealed to his tographs, paintings, and other on the literary map of the world in A senses and nourished his writing. mementos of Tennessee Williams. Streetcar Named Desire and ocher works. Although Thomas Lanier Williams These contributors are Dorian - W. Kenneth Ho/ditch had adopted his nom-de-plume, Major Bennett, George Febres (art­ Tennessee, before he arrived in New work by Douglas Bourgeois), Jack The Historic New Orleans Collection is plan­ O rleans , it was here that this Fricks, Christopher Harris, Robert ning to install a plaque co mmemorating new identity began to flourish. Hines, W. Kenneth Holditch, Don Tennessee Williams at 722 To ulouse Street in Throughout his life he would return Lee Keith, Peggy and Errol Laborde the spring. to the city that was the setting for (drawing by George Febres), The Collection is especially grateful to some of his best-known works. Richard Freeman Leavitt, Page W Kenneth Ho/ditch fo r supplying the title The current exhibition at the Moran (drawing by Dan Mosley) , to the exhibition, which is from his essay of Collection, The Last Frontier of and the Roger Houston Ogden the same name originally published in the Bohemia, focuses on Williams's rela­ Collection. Their recollections of Southern Quarterly. Dr. Ho/ditch is research tionship to the city. Besides the Williams are displayed as wall­ professor of English at the University of New items on loan from the Harry mounted labels beside the objects Orleans and is the author of numerous Ransom Humanities Research lent to the exhibition. articles about Tennessee Williams.

5 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN NEW ORLEANS: HOLDINGS FROM THE RANSOM CENTER

Items on Loan ftom the Tennessee Williams holdings at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center: above, postcards sent by Williams shortly after his arrival in New Orleans and, right, Tennessee Williams seated at a desk in his New Orleans apartment, ca. 1948

Cathy Henderson, research librarian theatrical memorabilia immediately Real, and Suddenly Last Summer. at the Harry Ransom Humanities suggested a loan exhibition that Michael Holroyd, George Research Center at the University of focused on Tennessee Williams's Bernard Shaw's biographer, in Texas at Austin, is the curator of The abiding affection for the city of New speaking about the scattering of Last Frontier of Bohemia: Tennessee Orleans - a city that served him Shaw manuscripts to be found in Williams in New Orleans. She was both as a personal refuge and as the public institutions and private assisted by Wendy Bowersock and inspiration and locus for much of hands throughout the world, David Dibble. The majority of items his creative work. concluded that "there is no Shaw in the Tennessee Williams exhibition The exhibition begins with collection, there is only a Shaw distri­ are on loan from the Ransom Center. documents tha t chronicle bution." The same can be said of Williams's introduction to the city Tennessee Williams's archival mate­ ennessee Williams in New of New Orleans in the winter of rials which, though concentrated T Orleans grew out of a conversa­ 1938-39. Also on display are at the Ransom Center and at tion about how the Ransom Center Williams's one-act plays, shore Harvard's Houghton Library, can might participate in a future stories, and poems that feature also be found at the University of Tennessee Williams/New Orleans New Orleans as a setting or subject Delaware, the Library of Congress, Literary Festival. The size and and his full-length dramatic works and at least nine other institutions. depth of the Center's holdings of that draw much of their power from - Cathy Henderson Williams's personal papers, their New Orleans background­ Harry Ransom Humanities published works, photographs, and A Streetcar Named Desire, Camino Research Center

6 From The

DIRECTOR or entrepre­ MARCH SEMINARS Fneurs hoping to build the so­ AT THE COLLECTION called information superhighway, The Southern Intellectual History Circle is sponsoring a series of seminars research institu­ entitled "History of the Book and the South" at the Historic New Orleans tions like the Collection in early spring. Each session will be held in the Counting House Historic New Orleans Collection are sud­ and is free and open to the public. denly attractive. We are, in their newly minted jargon, "content providers." March 2, 7:30p.m. Advancing technology has made content Chair: C. Vann Woodward, Yale University (images and texts and information) an The " New Cultural History' and the " History ofthe Boo Ii' asset rather than a problem as digital sys­ David Hall, Harvard University tems store, process, and transmit larger amounts of information faster for growing March 3, 10:45-12:30 networks of voracious consumers. Reading and Writing My encounters with fiber-optic Chair: Eugene Genovese, University Center of Georgia entrepreneurs coincided with the arrival Print and the Peiformative World ofthe Southern Cokmial here of 200 historians of the American Man ofLetters frontier for a November conference David Shields, The Citadel cosponsored by the Collection, the A Past for the Present: Constructing Womens History in Newberry Library, and the Institute of Nineteenth-Century America Early American History and Culture. Mary Kelley, Dartmouth College Our frontier conference suggested an 2:30-4:15 unexpected parallel - that the French Printing and Publishing coureurs de bois carrying furs to the Chair: Michael Kreyling, Vanderbilt University European market along the Mississippi The Development ofthe Southern Press: The Case of and St. Lawrence watersheds were also Charleston, South Carolina, 1731-1931 early content providers. When the man­ David Moltke-Hansen, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill ager of a projected fiber-optic network Immersion and Adaptation: State, Region, and Nation in North Carolina explained that his chief business objective William J. Gilmore, Stockton State College required only seven percent of the poten­ tial for the transmission of digital infor­ mation, I thought of a quirky essay by Canadian economic historian Harold A Innis who mused about "unused capaci­ Ao CLUB EXHIBITION ty" in the development of North America. Large canoes carrying cheap and bulky European goods into the wilderness left Hello Mellow space - unused capacity - for many more valuable furs on the trip back. JAXBEE~ Nineteenth-century vessels carrying North American lumber to Europe offered empty holds that transported thousands of immigrants to these shores. Now the unused capacity of fiber-optic cable is making research institutions and museums attractive as "content providers." Innis and his most famous student, Marshall McLuhan, would not Following Tennessee Williams in New Orleans, the Collection will mount an exhibition have been surprised. that celebrates the 85th anniversary of the Ad Club of New Orleans. The photograph of -]on Kukla a vintage billboard (above) comes from the Ad Club's materials on loan to THNOC.

7 though many American cities had ber shops, and by newsboys, these guides Blue Books were published by Billy ed-light districts, New Orleans were appreciated by "sports" exploring Struve, a former police reporter for the was the first to enact an ordi­ New Orleans's playground of vice. New Orleans Daily Item who identified nance intended to regulate the activities of The earliest extant guidebook to himself as "Billy News" in the opening "lewd and abandoned" women by confin­ Storyville appeared about 1898. On its pages of some of the little books. Struve ing them to a specifically designated area. cover is a picture of a woman holding a had an office on the second floor of Lulu Alderman Sidney Story (hence, Storyville) fan with the words "Blue Book" above White's saloon, which was on the corner prepared and sponsored the ordinance and "Tenderloin 400" below. Although of Basin and Bienville Streets next door to which passed on January 29, 1897. For her famous brothel, Mahogany Hall. nearly 20 years thereafter Storyville was in Perhaps Blue Books were published in full swing. The federal government forced Anderson's Annex prior to this location as Storyville to close in 1917 when open pros­ Struve was also the manager of Tom titution was prohibited within five miles of Anderson's Annex Cafe on the cor­ any United States military installation. ner of Basin and Iberville Storyville was not located in Streets. Tom Anderson, the the French Quarter, although unofficial "Mayor of the Quarter was the scene Storyville," proprietor of of prostitution before and several cafes and member after the establishment of of the state legislature, the district. Storyville encom­ eventually married the passed the area from the down­ well-known madam town side of Iberville Street to the Gertrude Dix. uptown side of Sc. Louis Street, and Blue Books from the lake side of Basin Street to the published prior to river side of Robertson Street. It was the 1908 could have been only such district to advertise in its own published by the Sunday press with any degree of regularity. Sun, a New Orleans newspaper devoted The various guides to Storyville's thousands of copies of various issues were to the activities of tenderloin "sociery." gaudy palaces are most often known by published, few Blue Books are marked as The typography of the newspaper and the the collective tide Blue Books. The blue numbered editions or even dared. The Blue Books is very similar. By of the tide refers more to subject matter first so marked is identified in the text as the time Storyville was established, than the color of the covers. The term the sixth edition, but is undated. The first the Mascot, another underground newspa­ "tenderloin 400" was used on some, numbered and dated Blue Book is the per, had ceased publication, but implying that those listed were the creme seventh edition (1906). A guide book perhaps its equipment was used co de la creme of the demimonde. with the words "Blue Book" in Old produce these guidebooks. Prostitutes working in cheap one- or two­ English type and "1907" on its cover is Blue Books are roughly the same size room "cribs" were not included. New marked as the eighth edition. Another (5!1 "x 4)( "or slightly smaller) with unnum­ Orleans was not the only ciry to have a with a squared swag design on its red bered pages, usually printed in red and special directory for its tenderloin, but it cover is identified inside as the ninth edi­ black ink on coated paper. "A Word to the apparently offered these directories on a tion but is undated. The tenth edition, Wise" greets the reader, explaining the pur­ more regular basis than any other city also undated, has a double row of fleurs­ pose of the book and the boundaries of the with a sizable red-light district. de-lis running the length of its cover. district. Readers are further informed that it Guidebooks to the sporting houses, Ocher Blue Books, whether issued before "is the right book for the right people" but as they were called, and their inmates were or after these identified editions, are not that it must not be mailed, probably made available to visitors as they left the dated or numbered as editions. A change because of postal regulations. train at the Southern Depot at Basin and in cover design does not always indicate a Listings of women follow, arranged Canal Streets. Also distributed at bars, bar- change of edition. either alphabetically by last name or some-

8 were crammed with furniture and bric-a­ brac in the Victorian taste and often dec­ orated around a theme .:_ the Japanese den, the Turkish den, the Viennese parlor. Other products, services, and events are also advertised. There are ads for whiskey, champagne, cigars, candy, jewel­ ers, and venereal disease "cures" under the guise of patent medicines. One lawyer advertised in several issues, along with a piano tuner and a bath house. Notices for the "French Balls" held during the carni­ J val season may indicate that Blue Books were issued in anticipation of increased business from visitors during that time. A bibliography publis hed in 1936 attempted to list all of the known issues of the Blue Book. It includes two tiny book- 1e ts from about 1904, The Lid and Hell-0, containing single-line listings of madams, addresses, and telephone numbers. Sporting Guide has a red cover, bordello ads, and several ruled pages for notes. The Red Book appeared about 1901 and says, "Give them a call, boys. You'll get treated right." Lulu White issued her own advertising booklet which features a picture of her Mahogany Hall on its tan cover and individual portraits of her (94-092-RL) "staff." The alleged picture of Lulu in her own booklet is not of her but of someone times by street address. They are identified authentic ninth edition, and their typo­ who worked for her. as white, colored, or octoroon, and in a graphy differs greatly from that of After 1917 when Storyville officially few Blue Books, Jewish prostitutes are also authentic Blue Books. closed, prostitutes scattered to nearly every designated. Names of the madams appear Throughout several issues of the Blue district of the city, and the little guide­ in capital letters or boldface print. Books, these advertisements remain much books ceased publication. Despite the great The advertisements for the various the same: numbers of these books which were widely brothels are among the most entertaining Miss Como Lines distributed during Storyville's heyday, they aspects of the Blue Books. Couched in 1565 Iberville Street are rarely seen today. The Historic New coy terms, these ads seem almost Miss Lines is one woman among the Orleans Collection has several issues of the demure. Vulgar or explicit descriptions fair sex who is regarded as an all-round Blue Books and other tenderloin guides. of the women or of the activities offered jolly good fellow .... Miss Lines also has - Pamela D. Arceneaux at each house are never employed. the distinction of keeping one of the Instead, the magnificence of the house, quietest and most elaborately So urces: Pamela D. Arceneaux, "Guidebooks the array of charming and pretty enter­ furnished establishments in the city ... To Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville," tainers, and the devotion to providing Louisiana History 28(1987) : 397-405; Blue visitors with a good time are empha­ Miss Grace Simpson Books, THNOC; Al Rose, Storyville, New sized. A facsimile Blue Book intended 223 N. Basin Orleans (University, Alabama, 1974); Ruth Rosen, The Lost Sisterhood: Prostitution in for tourists appeared a few years ago con­ House full of pretty and clever women America, 1900-1918 (Baltimore, 1982); taining typical advertisements like those Phone 788 MAIN "Semper Idem," The "Blue Book"; found in authentic Blue Books. Ocher A Bibliographical Attempt to Describe the extremely graphic descriptions, however, In addition to these ads, many of the Guide Books to the Houses of Ill Fame .. . appear in chis facsimile marked ninth Blue Books contain photographs of inte­ Hearcman's Historical Series, no. 50 (New edition. These pages are not found in an riors of the more elegant houses. Rooms Orleans, privately published, 1936).

9 RESEARCH CENTER ACQUISITIONS

THE HI STORIC NEW between Mrs. Harris E. Kirk and the ORLEANS COLLECTION Woodrow Wilson family. Mrs. Kirk and encourages research in the her husband, a minister, lived in Baltimore library, manuscripts, and at the time of the Wilson presidency curatorial divisions of its (1913-1921). The Kirk's daughter spent research center from 10:00 months at a time in New Orleans and their a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday granddaughter, Mrs. Maginnis, settled in through Saturday (except New Orleans. The correspondence holidays) . Cataloged materials available to includes letters from Ellen Wilson researchers include books, manuscripts, (Wilson's first wife), Edith Bolling Galt paintings, prints, drawings, maps, pho­ (his second wife), Eleanor Wilson tographs, and artifacts about the history McAdoo, Margaret Wilson, President and culture of New Orleans, Louisiana, j Woodrow Wilson, and secretaries. Also \ and the Gulf South. Each year the included are various invitations, news clip­ Collection adds thousands of items to its "' ( pings, and a photograph of Ellen Wilson ' '- holdings by donation or purchase. Only a '\ with her name written by the president. / few recent acquisitions can be noted here. r • The James E. Steiner Collection (1770- ' ,""' 1862), donated by Karen McGoey, Inez

l, Grieshaber, Mary Lou Hardy, and Joan MANUSCRIPTS Perret, relates primarily to the Spanish Street names, family names, culinary con­ colonial and territorial periods. Steiner, a tributions, and unique New Orleans local attorney, collected the assorted docu­ expressions are among the many reminders ments relating to early New Orleans histo­ of the French influence in New Orleans. ry. These include account statements, affi­ Pride in this heritage is evident in Les davits, bills, correspondence, licenses, Comediens Franrais, a theater group orga­ mandats de payement, copies of minutes nized by Mme. Gabrielle Lavedan in 1934 and ordinances, postcards, receipts, and for the purpose of "generally promoting, ships' papers. fostering, and perpetuating the French lan­ • A microfilm acquisition from the French guage and the French culture in the State Foreign Office archives in Paris includes of Louisiana." The organization made its the addition of six volumes relating to colo­ home at Le Petit Theatre from 1941 to nial Louisiana and the Louisiana Purchase 1967 and later performed plays at various (1 712-1835). The film contains a wealth of locations including Loyola's Marquette previously untapped information concern­ Theatre and the Contemporary Arts ing the colonization of Louisiana and the Center. After presenting more than five Floridas, cession to Spain, retrocession of decades of stage productions in French, the Louisiana by Spain, and the sale to the group became inactive. Its recently donat­ United States and subsequent negotiations. ed records include certificates, bylaws, clip­ - M Theresa LeFevre I pings, correspondence, ephemera, histo­ ~, ((., ·.~ . ries, playbills, photoprints, reviews, LIBRARY portraits, scripts, and scrapbooks. Of par­ ticular interest is a scrapbook with pencil A recent acquisition is the catalogue of a sketches of costume designs and portrai ts 1983 George Ohr exhibition mounted by of the Comediens by Marcelle Peret. Also the Southern Arts Federation. George E. included are programs (1930-1934) of the Ohr (1857-1918), an important 19th-cen­ group's predecessor organization, La tury art potter, is noted for works that Illustration, top, Mme. Emma Douglass Genre; Renaissance Franraise. bottom, Mme. Gabrielle Flamier Lavedan, reflect his eccentric personality. Although • A donation from Mrs. Malcolm G. from scrapbook ofLes Comediens Franrais he was born, spent much of his career, and Maginnis consisting primarily of corre­ (94-64-L) died in Biloxi, he is also associated with the spondence ·reveals a close rel ationship New Orleans art scene of the 1880s and

JO - TO

- Jt t:.1 'JH,)'ANS

. 1 • "" ~~ . ·-~.-a1~ ~,~,., L·,/ .I ;~ ' f I

Ellen Wilson, first wife ofWoodrow Wilson, with card fom the president acknowledging sympathy exp ressed at the time ofh er death (94-76-L)

1890s. He maintained a pottery in Biloxi from 1883 until the end of his life; how­ ever, he and his mentor, Joseph Meyer, also opened the New Orleans Art Pottery in 1886. Ohr joined the ceramics staff at Newcomb College on a part-time basis in 1896, although there is no official record of his employment. After six years he returned to Biloxi to produce an enor­ mous quantity of pottery. Although he exhibited frequently during his lifetime and often won awards for his work, his flamboyant pieces did not sell, and he eventually warehoused approximately 6,000 items before his death in 1918. This cache was discovered in 1972 by New Jersey dealer James W Carpenter who reintroduced Ohr's work ...., ... to the public. PILIA llAZUIIA • Martha Means Mackie and her brother, CO MPOSED fOR THE PIA\0 '0•- l. Henry Furman Means, have donated a IIBATll.l.lllllm. considerable collection of sheet music spanning a period of American music Sheet music fom the Mackie donation (94-404-RL) from 1803 to the 1930s. The gift com­ established Land's End plantation near local music seller and publisher Emile prises nine volumes of bound sheet Shreveport in the mid- l 830s. Johns is represented. The music collec­ music, one of which has been in the fami­ Henry Marshall was elected to the tion remained at Land's End until the ly for 175 years, as well as 10 music books state legislature in 1844, prompting fre­ 1980s. Fortunately, it was removed before and approximately 130 loose music quent visits to New Orleans where he the plantation burned in 1989. sheets. In the fashion of the 19th century, shopped extensively for the family. It is • Luther Hall has donated ephemeral each bound volume has been stamped documented that he purchased a material relating to several early 20th-cen­ or labeled with the name of the family Chickering square grand piano, and tury governors. There are inaugural ball member to whom it belonged. The descendants believe chat he brought programs featuring governors Murphy J. family that accumulated this collection much of the sheet music back to Land's Foster ( term, 18 92-1900), William W was that of Henry Marshall (1805-1864) End from New Orleans. The majority of Heard (term, 1900-1904), Newton C. and his wife, Maria Taylor Marshall the pieces date from the mid-19th century Blanchard (term, 1904-1908), and then­ (1807-1855), from South Carolina, who and contain some significant items; early lieutenant governor Jared Y. Sanders

11 (term as governor, 1908-1912). An invi­ Hermes are the donation of Dr. & Mrs. CURATORIAL tation to a "First State Ball" held in Frank S. Oser, Jr. Hermes was organized honor of Governor Luther E. Hall As was recently demonstrated in the as the Great Depression was winding ( term, 1912-1916), and a silk-bound exhibition The Grand American Avenue, down, and its neon-bedecked Boats are menu of a dinner attended by Governor plans, drawings, and other related still one of the memorable sights of the Heard in honor of the vice-president of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad are attractive items in the collection. • Song sheets, small broadsides printed with just the lyrics of popular songs and usually sung to well­ known tunes, were widely printed throughout the South during the Civil War. They could be produced quickly, easily, and cheaply by even the smallest printery and were ideal for spreading patriotic fervor. The library has acquired a song sheet enti­ tled "The Song of the C. R.'s of M." (ca. 1861) to be sung to the tune of "Villikens and His Dinah," a familiar air to New Orleanians of the late 1850s. The initials in the title refer to the Crescent Rifles, a company that trained at Williamsburg under John B. Magruder during the winter of 1861. Although this piece is undated, it was probably printed at that time in the Williamsburg area not long after the war began. The Plan ofa residence situated corner St. Charles Avenue and State Street by Toledano and Reusch, between 1896 and 1897 (1 994. 88.1 i,ii) lyrics portray the men of the Crescent Rifles, regardless of their materials are often all that remain of carnival season. Dr. Oser's father was one nocturnal revelries, as stalwart and brave once significant buildings. Two recent of the founders of the organization, in the face of battle. gifts add to the architectural informa­ which held its first ball and parade in - Pamela D. Arceneaux tion available at the Collection. Suzanne 1937. The photographs show the balls of W. Friedrichs has donated drawings, 1937, 1938, and 1939 and were made photographs, documents, and other by John N. Teunisson, a New Orleans materials related to the life and work of photographer whose career included the Freret family, which includes several parts of five decades, from the late 19th architects. A donation from Eugenie century into the 1940s. Dart is of 24 drawings of the residence • Herbert S. and Andre D. Livaudais built for Henry Plauche Dart at 5931 have made a donation of manuscript St. Charles Avenue. The drawings show materials and artifacts that relate to their the original design by the firm of business as sugar brokers (see manu­ Toledano & Reusch in 1895-96, and scripts acquisitions, Fall 1994). Among modifications made by Toledano & the items housed in the curatorial divi­ Wogan in 1905-1906. Construction sion are sampling tools and spatulas, jars details are recorded, as well as designs for sugar samples, and other containers for interior ornamentation. The house used to judge the quality of sugar and was demolished in the 1960s. determine its market price. The objects jars fo r sugar samples (I 994. 87) • Three large photographs showing the span a period of nearly 100 years, from inaugural carnival ball of the Knights of the 1880s through 1984.

12 • Mrs. Marilyn B. Wenzel has given an oil portrait of Dr. George Leon Hardin, a noted New Orleans opthamologist for about 30 years and professor of opthamology at Tulane Medical School. The portrait was painted by Ellsworth Woodward, who was a patient of Dr. Hardin. • A sterling silver needlecase/toothpick holder that served as a 1910 souvenir from the Shriner's Jerusalem Temple is the gift of Mrs. Gordon Reese. • A memorial card commemorating Margaret Haughery shortly after her death is a donation from Leila Wilkinson Dr. George Leon Hardin Scheyd. The card, which shows a small by Ellsworth photograph of Mrs. Haughery, includes Woodward a printed verse as a tribute to her life's (1994.92) work with orphans and the city's poor. • An addition to the holdings on Louisiana politics includes tokens, cam­ paign buttons, and other materials focus­ DONORS: ing on the lives and careers of Dudley J. JULY - SEPTEMBER 1994 LeBlanc and Huey P. Long. J. H.Adams Peggy Scott Laborde • The map holdings have been aug­ Estate of Fanny Kahn Alcus Mrs. W Elliot Laudeman III mented by two gifts. From Mrs. Bertha Mitylene Parham Arnold Mr. and Mrs. John H. Lawrence Blattman Murrhee comes a plan of Audubon Institute Les Comediens Frarn;:ais Homedale Park. Printed January 1, Ann Barnes Herbert S. Livaudais and Andre D. Livaudais Peter Bernard in honor of the family business, 1913, the plan documents the growth of Mrs. Sydney Shields Bowen S. H. Livaudais and Sons, sugar brokers Lakeview during the first part of the cen­ Terry Brahney Martha Means Mackie tury and gives information on property Thomas Brahney III Mrs. Malcolm G. Maginnis owners, the New Basin Canal, and street­ Robert S. Brantley Mrs. William Maier car lines. The map contains several Eric J. Brock Joseph Maselli Mrs. William K. Chrisrovich Karen McGoey German annotations, one of which gives Clare Yancey Crews Henry Furman Means directions to public transportation. Mrs. Harold L. Cromiller Alberta Meitin-Graf Frederick D. Parham II and Mitylene Eugenie Dart Maury A. Midlo Parham Arnold have donated four maps Marie Schroeder DesRoches Michael J. Molony, Jr. R.J. Dykes Bertha Blatrmann Murrhee from 1938 through 1950 that show pop­ Dr. Jay D. Edwards Don Myers ulation distribution, blighted areas, and Linda Finnegan Elizabeth Shaw Nalty land use. One 1938 plan of particular Suzanne W Friedrichs Dr. and Mrs. Frank S. Oser, Jr. interest shows a proposed housing pro­ Maurice L. Frisell Hermann Oswald Inez Grieshaber Frederick D. Parham II ject that would have demolished several James L. Griffin Joan Perret blocks in the heart of the Vieux Carre. James Lee Guilbeau G. David Perrin, Jr. - Judith H Bonner and Robert Gunning Press Club of New Orleans John H Lawrence Luther Hall Jeanne P. Rabig Dr. Virginia V Hamilton Mrs. Gordon Reese The Handley Library Stanley M. Rowe, Jr. Mary Lou Hardy Leila Wilkinson Scheyd Ira Herman School of Design PHOTO CREDITS Mrs. Robert Joseph Killeen State Library of Louisiana Celia Seiferth Kornfeld U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Robert Kornfeld DotWeisler Jan White Brantley Henry W Krotzer Marilyn B. Wenzel Libby Nevinger Dr. Jon Kukla Cornelius Regan

13 INTERNSHIP PROGRAM STAFF Matt Savage (UNO) is an intern in the manuscripts division.

PROFESSIONAL ACTMTIES John H. Lawrence, director of Matt Savage museum programs, has been appointed co the Historic District Landmarks Maclyn Hickey Commission. He gave an illustrated lec­ ture to the Photography Support Group CHANGES at the Dallas Museum of Arc on the work Maclyn Hickey has been named of photographer Clarence John Laughlin. associate registrar. David Dibble_ (B .~., Williams College) works part-tlme m VOLUNTEERS the systems department and volunteers Dan Ross and Larry Barthe are vol­ in the curatorial division. unteers in the manuscripts division.

john Lawrence Dr. Patricia Brady, director of publi­ Larry Barthe cations, has been named editor of the arcs David Dibble and entertainment volume in the Louisiana PUBLICATIONS Purchase Bicentennial Series on Louisiana Scaff members who contributed arti­ history to be published by the Center for cles to che New Orleans Art Review are Louisiana Studies. During the fall semester, John Lawrence, Judith H. Bonner, Kate head librarian Florence M. Jumonville Holliday, and David Dibble. Curator caught the graduate course "History of John Magill wrote an article for Books and Libraries" for the LSU School of Preservation in Print. Alfred E. Lemmon Editors: Patricia Brady Library and Information Science. contributed "Toward an Internacional Louise C. Hoffman Dr. Alfred E. Lemmon, curator of Inventory of Colonial Spanish American manuscripts, served as North American_edi­ Music Archives" to the Proceedings of the Head of Photography: Jan White Brantley tor for the "Bibliografia Musical 15th Congress of the International Latinoamericana II" published in Revista Musicological Society. T he Historic New O rl ea ns Collection Quarterly is published by the Historic New Musical Chikna. Dr. George Reinecke, vol­ A photograph by Jan White unteer, presented a paper to the folklore sec­ Orleans Coll ection, whi ch is operated Brantley was published in the November b y the Kem p e r and Le il a W illia m s tion of the South Central Modern Language 1994 issue of Historic Preservation. Her Association. Pamela D. Arceneaux, refer­ Foundatio n, a Louisiana nonp rofi t co rpora­ photograph of the new organ screen at tion. Housed in a complex of histori c build­ ence librarian, participated a focus-group in Christ Church Cathedral is on the cover ings in the French Quarter, faci lities are discussion about the future direction of the of the January issue of American Organist o pen to the pu blic, Tuesday thro ugh Louisiana Library Association. Elsa and was used on the program cover of the Saturday, from 10:00 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. Schneider, director of public relations, Cathedral Concerts. To urs of the history gal leri es and the resi­ attended the professional development semi­ dence are ava ilable for a nomin al fee. nar of the Public Relations Society of SPEECHES America, Southwest District. Jon Kukla, Louisiana Historical Board of Directors: Society; John Magill, Real Property M rs. Will iam K. Christovich, President MEETINGS Committee of the New Orleans Bar G. Henry Pierson, J r. Dr. Jon Kukla attended the meeting Association, the Sc. Charles Avenue Francis C. Doyle John E. Walker of the Archaeological Advisory Board of Association, and the drafting class from Fred M. Smi th the Jamestown Rediscovery Project. Mark Denham Springs High School; Patricia Brady, Entre Nous Book Club and the Cave, reference archivist, attended the fall Jon Kukla, Director meeting of the Louisiana Archives and Vieux Carre Property Owners and Residents Association; Pamela D. Manuscripts Association at Nicholls Scace The Histo ri c New O rl eans Collection Arceneaux , American Deneal University. Patricia Brady traveled to 533 Royal Street Tucson for the annual meeting of the Association; Florence M. Jumonville, New O rleans, Louisiana 70130 Association for Documentary Editing, Round Table Club; John Lawrence, (5 04) 523-4662 and Louise Hoffman, editor, attended the Junior League Interior Decorating Club annual meeting of the Publishers and Robert E. Smith branch library; ISSN 0886-2109 © 1995 Association of the South in Orlando. Judith H. Bonner, United Daughters of T he Historic New Orleans Collection the Confederacy.

14 IN BRIEF MINI-EXHIBITS FEATURE RELIGION AND POETRY

THE SHOP ooking for a carnival ball favor or a L mid-winter gift? You'll find recipes with such names as Creme a la glace au Above, Nun ofthe Holy Family and Rex or Gateaux a !'Arc-en-Ciel in Ekgant child by Doris Ulmann, ca. 1930 Entertaining Along St. Charles Avenue: (1981.329.43); right, A Baptizing by Authentic Menus and 1890's Recipes Elemore M Morgan, Sr., 1940s (I 976139.26) from the Garden District ofNew Orkans by shop manager Sue Laudeman in the uring the Tennessee Williams in New Orleans exhibition, the following mini­ museum shop for $11.95 (spiral-bound; Dexhibits will be on view just beyond the Williams Gallery. $1. 50 shipping and handling). Call 504-523-4662 to order a copy. Images ofAfrican American Religious Expression GRACE KING AWARD A sample of the rich history of African American religious life, with items drawn ave Our Cemeteries selected the from the three research divisions Historic New Orleans Collection to January 31 - March 4 S receive the 1994 Grace King Award, which was presented in recognition of the Poems ofEverette Maddox Collection's contributions to the preserva­ Manuscript poems by the Maple Street poet laureate, including those written tion of historic cemeteries. The award is on cocktail napkins and other odd bits of paper named in honor of Grace King (1852- March 7 -April 8 1932), the well-known New Orleans writer who was the first person to work for cemetery preservation in New Orleans. AT THE COLLECTION

Pictured at the opening ofThe Grand American Avenue in September are John Lawrence with The Grand American Avenue exhibition coordinators Norman L. Koonce and Sylvester Damianos from the American Architectural Linnea Hamer and Sherry C Birk ofthe Octagon Museum in Washington, D. C Foundation with Kate and Jon Kukla.

15 December 20, 1994 -April 8, 1995 Exhibition Hours: Tuesday- Saturday, 10:00a.m. - 4:45p.m.

Tennessee Williams in New Orleans A Slide Lecture W Kenneth Holditch January 19, 7:30p.m. The Counting House

Midday Gallery Talks in March Wednesdays at 12:30 March 1-29 Williams Gallery Self-portrait by Tennessee Williams, ca. 1947. © 1994 John L. Eastman, Trustee UIW Tennessee Williams. Courtesy Ransom Center Tennessee Williams Literary Walking Tours Available by appointment THE Heritage Tours Call 949-9805 for fees and schedule.

LAST FRONTIER Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival A long weekend of literature, theater, and music OF BOHEMIA: March 23-26 TENNESSEE WILLIAMS IN NEW ORLEANS Call 286-6680 for further information.

Non Profit THE HISTORIC Organization U.S. Postage NEW ORLEANS PAID New Orleans, LA COLLECTION Permit No. 863 QUARTERLY

KEMPER AND LEILA WILLIAMS FOUNDATION THE HISTORIC NEW ORLEANS COLLECTION Museum • Research Center • Publisher 533 Royal Street New Orleans, Louisiana 70130 (504) 523-4662 ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED