Description

If you want to get the story behind the culture of New Orleans and the surrounding region, then plan on visiting the Historic New Orleans Collection, conveniently located in the heart of the French Quarter on Royal Street.

General and Mrs. L. Kemper Williams, collectors of Louisiana materials, established the institution in 1966 to keep their collection intact and make it more broadly available. Since that time, the Historic New Orleans Collection has grown into a museum, research center and publisher with a mission to study and preserve not only the culture of the city, but of the Gulf South region. Now housed in a complex of French Quarter buildings that are themselves a fascinating historical draw, the Historic New Orleans Collection features eleven galleries with permanent displays that trace Louisiana's rather fascinating past, including two newer galleries focusing on the 20th century. Once inside, you'll find you can immerse yourself in everything from New Orleans' French and Spanish colonial past, as well as its antebellum era to Mardi Gras and jazz, so expect a little musical accompaniment along the way too.

In addition to its permanent displays, the Historic New Orleans Collection's changing exhibitions run the gamut of the New Orleans/Gulf South experience. Exhibits can range from subjects as diverse as plantation furnishings and artwork by pre-Civil War free people of color to celebrations of Tennessee Williams and documenting the effects of the levee failures after Hurricane Katrina on the city.

For those who want to learn about the culture in even more depth, the Williams Research Center offers approximately 35,000 library items and more than 300,000 photographs, prints, drawings and paintings, as well as unusual three-dimensional objects and even rare documents (available in the original and in microform) for study. The materials are available to the general public through the assistance of the Center's reading room staff.

The Historic New Orleans Collection also publishes books, quarterlies, guides, journals and videos that cover a wide-range of diverse subjects. Scholars on staff are also available to present lectures on a variety of topics, including the Battle of New Orleans, Cemeteries and Burial Traditions, the History of Prostitution in New Orleans, New Orleans Architecture, to name just a few. Innovative educational programs are also on tap at the Historic New Orleans Collection, as are a number of annual events, including a concert series.