FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media contacts:

Eli Haddow, The Historic New Orleans Collection
(504) 556-7603 | elih@hnoc.org
Sarah Chambless Federer, Gambel Communications
(985) 373-5271 | sarahc@gambelpr.com
533 Royal Street | 400‒410 Chartres Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
(504) 523-4662 | wrc@hnoc.org | www.hnoc.org

WHO: The Historic New Orleans Collection

WHAT: "Goods of Every Description: Shopping in New Orleans, 1825-1925," a new exhibition

WHEN: On view Friday, Sept. 23, 2016-Sunday, April 9, 2017
Gallery hours are Tuesday‒Saturday, 9:30 a.m.‒4:30 p.m. and Sunday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (excluding holidays). An opening reception will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 28, from 6:30-8 p.m.

WHERE: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 533 Royal St., in the French Quarter

HOW: Admission is free. For more information, visit www.hnoc.org or call (504) 523-4662.

WHY: For a century, consumers looking for the latest fashions from around the world traveled to showrooms lining Royal, Chartres and Canal Streets. Stocked with a bevy of artifacts, The Historic New Orleans Collection's next exhibition, "Goods of Every Description: Shopping in New Orleans, 1825-1925," invites visitors to explore 100 years of the city's cosmopolitan retail scene.

Featuring a replica shopwindow, period showcases and more than 150 artifacts, the exhibition examines the wide variety of merchandise available in 19th- and early 20th-century New Orleans, including ceramics, silver, furniture and clothing. An interactive map and historical records show the shops' locations, their dates of operation and descriptions of their wares.

New Orleans stood then, as it does now, at the center of a crisscrossing network of global trade routes. Noted local shopkeepers filled their stores with goods imported from New York, Boston, Cincinnati, England, France, Germany and other manufacturing centers across the globe. Ephemera including advertisements, receipts and images help visitors understand how the exhibition's goods were marketed and sold.

By the turn of the 20th century, when mass production grew more efficient, modest showrooms expanded into vast emporiums selling cheaper goods that arrived in bulk shipments. Colossal department stores such as Maison Blanche and D. H. Holmes on Canal Street offered several categories of merchandise-still in the latest fashions-under one roof at prices that more consumers could afford. Around the same time, furniture stores on Royal Street, capitalizing on customers' nostalgia, began to stock European antiques and resell longtime clients' heirlooms. "Goods of Every Description" concludes with these early antiques dealers, whose descendants continue the family legacies to this day.

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About The Historic New Orleans Collection
Founded in 1966, The Historic New Orleans Collection is a museum, research center and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South. For more information, visit www.hnoc.org or call (504) 523-4662.