Wednesday, April 3, 2002
Time: 5:30 pm
New Orleans Notarial Archives Research Center

Our Spring meeting is being hosted by New Orleans Notarial Archives Research Center. It is located at 1340 Poydras Street, New Orleans LA 70112. The address for the main office is: New Orleans Notarial Archives, Room B-4, Civil District Courts Building, 421 Loyola Ave., NO LA 70112.

The Notarial Archives is a state agency that holds over 35 million pages of Notarial contracts (1731 to date). It also preserves many colorful maps, blueprints, topographical elevations, and design drawings. Records increase by about 50,000 acts yearly. Their business hours are from 9:00 to 4:00 M-F. Their web site is www.notarialarchives.org. Sally Reeves is Archivist.

Minutes of Winter 2001 GNOA Meeting

On December 11, members of the GNOA met at the Latter Branch of the New Orleans Public Library. Irene Wainwright and others on staff welcomed us with a festive celebration in this most celebrated of all the public library branches in New Orleans. A record number of archivists attended with many new members. The business meeting then followed, with the minutes of the fall meeting being voted on and approved. Treasurer Rob Sherer gave a report on GNOA finances, noting that though interest rates have fallen, GNOA continues in good shape.

It was moved and seconded, that the budget for refreshments be increased. All were in agreement such that the allotment for refreshments was changed to $125. A listing of dues paying members was handed out. New business consisted of a request by Sr. Dorothy Dawes of the Dominican Archives that the GNOA contribute to the publication costs of an historical guide to Catholics in Louisiana. We agreed to donate $300 to this project. In other new business, Laura Kersting of Dillard University Archives asked for help with a joint project to maintain a centralized collection of emergency plans and telephone numbers. Tucker agreed to help with this compilation.

Elections were then held, with Cathy Kahn being elected as President; Barbara Vaughn, as Secretary: and Robert Sherer as Treasurer. Outgoing President Raymond Nusbaum thanked the membership for his time. Cathy then asked for ideas for new projects. It was decided that she would form a committee to discuss a possible documentation strategy plan, similar to our joint efforts in compiling Jews of New Orleans. Bill Meneray then spoke on the status of the Confederate Museum, noting that the papers of the Museum were transferred to Tulane long ago. The artifacts remain with the Museum and Bill discussed ongoing efforts to deal with various factions concerned over these items. The meeting was adjourned at 7:45.

Notes from the President

Notice to our members: please, if you have not already done so, come to the April 3rd meeting prepared to pay your 2002 dues. The small assessment of $10 a person is used to offset the wonderful spread each host repository has provided for us. Besides our mission to promote archival research and support scholarship, we also like to party hearty, and we need our dues for that task.

News From Around the City

Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve

The first weekend in March the park's headquarters and administrative offices were moved from Canal Place to the second floor of the Laura C. Hudson Visitor Center, 419 Decatur Street. The visitor center and exhibit area have been open for a year and a half but the second floor has only recently been completed. The park is hoping to get some funding to copy the national cemetery records and have these copies available for research. The archival material that was stored at the Canal Place office is now being stored at the visitor center, and is not accessible for research at this time.

We are working on two major projects: 1) Organizing the Papers of Ross Parmenter, which were acquired last year. Mr. Parmenter was a former New York Times music reporter who developed an interest in many aspects of Mexico during the 1950s. Upon early retirement from the Times in the early 1960s, Parmenter began spending eight months out of the year in Oaxaca, Mexico researching indigenous painted manuscripts and writing about a variety of topics. The collection at Tulane includes his voluminous correspondence with scholars, art historians, friends, as well as much of his correspondence from his years at the Times. Also of interest are Parmenter's research notes for the various books that he published over the years. 2) Our second major project underway involves the making of an authoritative inventory of the Merle Greene Robertson Maya Rubbings Collection.

The Louisiana Division has completed a long-term project to rehouse and reinventory the James Harrison Dakin Collection of architectural drawings and lithographs. The original Dakin drawings have been put into mylar sleeves and housed in a new map case. In addition, the inventory of the Dakin Collection has been added to NUTRIAS, the NOPL website, along with low-resolution digital versions of the drawings, taken with a digital camera. The inventory and images can be found at nutrias.org/photos/photolist.htm.

Also now available in NUTRIAS is a transcription of the directory of the Friends of the Cabildo Oral History Program. The directory lists almost five hundred interviews with a varied group of New Orleanians including, for example, Eddie Baquet, Sybil Morial, Frank Gagnard, and Caroline Durieux. The Louisiana Division houses cassette recordings of the interviews. The online directory can be found at nutrias.org/guides/foc/cabildo.htm.

The City Archives has completed processing of several large collections including the New Orleans Health Department Records, 1898-1996; of the Records of the Office of the Mayor, 1862-1920 (completed by an intern from Oberlin College, who worked with us in January); and the criminal records of the Second Judicial District Court (Sixth and Seventh Municipal Districts of New Orleans), 1876-1880. Finding aids for these collections can be accessed in NUTRIAS.

Two exhibits are now on view in the Louisiana Division, through the end of April: Proteus 1909 Float Designs is a small exhibit of original float designs by Bror Anders Wikstrom. The World of Francois Lacroix draws upon documents from Lacroix's massive 1876 succession to illustrate the life and times of one of the wealthiest free men of color in New Orleans. Both exhibits can also be seen in NUTRIAS at nutrias.org/exhibits/exhibits.htm.

The Louisiana Division's semi-annual class "Genealogy for Beginners" will be held at the Main Library on April 20, 2002, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Participants must pre-register by calling the Louisiana Division at 596-2610.

The Touro Infirmary Archives is working on a yearlong project to supply the history of the hospital to the various departments (Administration, Marketing, etc.) to promote Touro's 150th anniversary in the New Orleans community. Some of the more unusual assignments include making up quiz questions on Touro's history for the Touro Times, which goes to the employees, and providing historical slides for the CEO's annual talk to staff on the state of the union here at Touro. This is as close to show biz as I have been since Ken Burns was working on his Civil War documentary when I was at HNOC.

In January the Louisiana and Special Collections Department moved into new facilities that include shelf space for Louisiana publications and for a reading area that accommodates users of those publications, as well as manuscripts and archives. These new quarters offer a convenient service desk, a spacious reading area, and a spectacular view of Lake Pontchartrain. The room that formerly served as the Special Collections reading room is currently used as a staff work area. For reference and research assistance, telephone 280-6544. Do come and visit!

As an adjunct to the University of New Orleans Archives, the Earl K. Long Library established the UNO Authors Collection, a special collection of books, book chapters, and articles written by members of the university faculty. The collection was inaugurated last April with the first annual exhibition of faculty publications and a reception honoring the authors. This year's events will be held on April 16 as part of the library's observance of National Library Week.

Collections processed recently include the Elizabeth Casellas Collection of Music Manuscripts (Mss 301, 1 linear foot), the Don Lee Keith Collection of New Orleans Photographs (Mss 302, 1 linear foot), and the Karen Harris Collection of Printed Ephemera (Mss 303, 1 linear foot), the last of these notably including 171 apothecary labels from chiefly New Orleans pharmacies, ca. 1900. Noteworthy acquisitions still in process include the René Louapre/Saenger Theatre Music Archives (approximately 40 linear feet) and the archives of Charles Dennery, Inc. (approximately 8 linear feet), a local manufacturer of confectioner's suppliers.

Educational Opportunities

A SOLINET workshop, ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL & MONITORING, will take place in New Orleans this spring, at discounted rates for Louisiana professionals. It will be held on Monday, May 13, 2002 at the Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, and LA from 9:00 - 4:00 pm. The workshop will outline strategies to preserve our documentary resources by controlling environmental conditions including temperature, relative humidity and pollutant. It includes lecture and discussion covering the following topics:

• Environmental Standards –discussion of recent studies and alternative ways of evaluating environmental needs

• Principles of Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC)—how these systems work, and key concepts needed to communicate with physical plant staff

• Environmental Monitoring and Controls—the effect of temperature, relative humidity, particulate and gaseous pollutants on archives/libraries; guidelines for monitoring and improving conditions in your building

• Implementing Change--how to improve conditions using simple, inexpensive techniques

Instructor is Dr. Michael Trinkley, Director, Chicora Foundation. Dr. Trinkley has consulted with libraries, archives and museums on environmental control and a variety of other preservation issues, and conducts a preservation-training program in South Carolina through Chicora Foundation.

Cost for the workshop is $95, SOLINET member, all membership categories, ($85 early bird, $120 late registration); $135 Non-SOLINET member ($125 early bird, $160 late registration). Any institution within Louisiana qualifies for the member rate.

Did you know?

Louisiana Archives and Manuscript Association promotes the role of archives in the preservation of our national, state, and local heritage by cooperating with Louisiana's public and private archival repositories in their work of collecting, conserving, and making accessible to the public manuscript, printed, graphic arts, and audio materials of historical significance. nutrias.org/lama/lama.htm. Annual meeting in fall.

Society of Southwest Archivists' (SSA) website is lib-04.lib.uh.edu/ssa/ssa.htm. Their annual meeting is Thursday May 16 through Saturday May 18, 2002 in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Society of American Archivists is the oldest and largest national professional archival association. Their website is www.archivists.org. Their annual meeting is August 19 to 25, 2002 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Academy of Certified Archivists promotes fundamental standards of professional archival practice. www.certifiedarchivists.org. May 15, 2002 is deadline to apply for archival certification examination.

Archivists Toolkit. Samples of archival forms. aabc.bc.ca/aabc/toolkit.html

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