Fall Meeting
Please call the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, Caroline Richardson Hall, at 865-5762 if you need directions. Caroline Richardson Hall is the second building on the right after entering Tulane campus from Willow Street.


This newsletter was produced by Jane Goldberg and Susan Tucker. Special thanks to Lee Miller and Irene Wainwright for their assistance.

On April 25, the GNOA met at Nunez Community College. Barbara Vaughn and the library staff there welcomed us with a reception in the Arts and Science auditorium. 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. A listing of dues paying members was handed out. Guest speakers included Tom Klingler of Tulane University, who spoke on the university's initiative for a NEH funded regional humanities center. As head of the committee on preservation, Tom spoke of assisting archives and asked for ways archives might work with the center. Another speaker was Ron Chapman, Instructor of History at NCC, who shared his research on Fazendville, a small African American community nestled between the Chalmette Battlefield and the National Cemetery. Fazendville dates its origins from after the Battle of New Orleans to 1963 when 30 families were relocated to accommodate an expansion of the Chalmette Battlefield.

The Dominican Sisters, Congregation of St. Mary

The Dominican Sisters, Congregation of St. Mary has changed its web address to www.stmarysdominican.net. Visit there, and write in the guest book! Recently added to the web site are memorials of all the sisters who have died in the past ten years. These are greatly appreciated by our alumnae, other past students, and friends.

St. Mary's Dominican High School has its own web site, www.stmarysdominican.org.

The HNOC is pleased to announce the continuation of its Garden Talks. The first of these this October will be held at 6pm on the 18th and will feature Judith Tankard, discussing "A Place of Beauty: The Artists and Gardens of the Cornish Colony." The second of these talks will be on October 25 and will focus on "Ornamental Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South." James Cothran, landscape architect, urban planner, and garden historian will lead this talk.

The HNOC also continues its Third Saturday program series with an October 20 event entitled Grave Matters: Sources for Cemetery Research at THNOC. Finally, on November 1, from 2-4, HNOC is pleased to announce a book signing by Walter G. Cowan and O.K. LeBlanc celebrating the publication of the third edition of New Orleans Yesterday and Today, A Guide to the City.

A number of additions have been made to NUTRIAS, NOPL's website (nutrias.org) during the last few months. These include an inventory of the audio tapes in the Joseph Culotta, Jr. Collection. The collection contains tapes of "Let's Talk It Over," one of New Orleans' first radio call-in/interview programs, which aired on WTIX from 1965-1986 and from 1986-1990 on WNOE. Topics discussed on "Let's Talk It Over" range widely from political events and social issues on a local, national and even international level to opinions of -elected officials, civil service employees, civic and business leaders, educators, religious leaders, attorneys, sports figures and coaches, academics, representatives of organizations and movements, authors, medical professionals, etc. The Culotta inventory can be found at nutrias.org/culotta/ltio.htm.

NOPL is also pleased to announce an inventory of the audiotapes from NOPL's NEH-funded "Jambalaya" Program, a series of lectures, discussions, exhibits, and other activities examining the culture and history of New Orleans held at NOPL during the late 1970s. These include 284 speakers, panelists, and performers--well-known people such as Tennessee Williams, Walker Percy, Ellis Marsalis, and many others to other experts on a host of topics such as Mardi Gras, children's books, and cuisine. The Jambalaya inventory can also be reached from NOPL's website.

The City Archives recently received seven boxes of documents and records from the office of Council Member Cynthia Willard-Lewis. The materials were created/collected by former members Ellen Hazeur and Lula Breaux. Also received were three boxes of records from the Mayor's Office of Federal and State Programs and four boxes of sound recordings from the Council Fiscal Office. These include tapes of Council Budget Committee meetings/hearings and tapes of Council Rivergate Committee meetings.

NOPL also continues to add photographs to its website, notably to the Victor H. Schiro Collection and the WPA Collection, and to the "Recent Additions" section of the photos page, which can be found at nutrias.org/photos/photolist.htm.

In upcoming programs, the Louisiana Division's semi-annual "Genealogy for Beginners" workshop, sponsored by NOPL, the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans, and the Friends of NOPL, will be held on November 17 at the Main Library, 219 Loyola Ave. The class is free, but pre-registration is required since seating is limited. Those interested in attending should call the Louisiana Division at 596-2610 to register.

The Newcomb Archives announces two programs for the fall. First is an exhibition honoring the donation of papers by Emilie Griffin, Newcomb Class of 1957. This exhibition will focus on the personal, professional, and creative life of Emilie Russell Dietrich Griffin, who has had a long career in advertising and writing in New York and New Orleans. A long time participant in Loyola's Institute for Ministry, the New Orleans Archdiocese's educational television programming, and organizations related to local tourism, she has written and published works that reflect on both business and spirituality. In correspondence and manuscripts from this work, her papers include many letters between family members from the 1930s to the present.

Second, in November, the Archives and Library at the Center will hold a Culinary Symposium, Reception, and Exhibit entitled "Two Women and their Cookbooks: Lena Richard and Mary Land." The symposium and exhibit, sponsored in part by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, will feature John Martin Taylor discussing "The Creolization of America."

Running through the end of December, the exhibit will feature letters, photographs, and artifacts related to the lives and work of Lena Richards and Mary Land, two women who defined New Orleans and Louisiana cuisine in the twentieth century. Richard, an African American, operated several New Orleans restaurants beginning in the 1920s. She also ran a catering business and, in the 1930s, a cooking school. She was a television cooking show pioneer; WDSU featured her program from 1947-49. Through the intercession of James Beard, Houghton Mifflin published Richard's New Orleans Cook Book in 1939.

Land, too, had a long time interest in cuisine, including its relationship to culture, folklore, and history. She was a published and prize-winning poet, as well as a writer. Her writing on many subjects appeared in national magazines and newspaper articles. She also had a syndicated newspaper column called All Outdoors that she co-authored with Arthur Van Pelt. She brought this wide background to two culinary books, published in 1954 and 1969. Like Lena Richard, she corresponded with James Beard and her books received national recognition.

The Academy of Certified Archivists held its annual luncheon August 31 in Washington, DC. A record number of persons attended this year's event, which included the introduction of the Academy's Class of 2000, the introduction of new officers, and the Academy's annual business meeting.

Three Louisianians were prominent at the meeting: Carol Mathias is chair of the Academy's Nominating Committee. Please contact Carol (985-448-4621) if you would be interested in running for an Academy office. Lee Miller was the incoming Academy president and spoke to the group about the different roles certification can play in the profession.

Robert Sherer participated in the Academy's first item writing workshop. The workshop taught participants how to write questions for the archival certification examination and introduced them to the rigorous methodology used to construct each year's test. Item writing is one of the most challenging, rigorous, but intellectually rewarding professional activities archivists can have, and all participants said it was a worthwhile and eye-opening experience. The Academy hopes to make the item-writing workshop an annual project.

Toward the end of this year, the Academy will mail recertification notices to the classes of 1989 (Charter Members), 1992, and 1996. The deadline for members of those classes to submit their recertification petitions is June 1, 2002; or, if they prefer, they may recertify by passing the 2002 exam. It will be given August 21, 2002, in New York, Birmingham, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Seattle, and any location where five or more persons request the Academy to give the test. For more information, visit the Academy's web site at www.certifiedarchivists.org.

Collin Hamer spoke to the Jefferson Genealogical Society on September 13 on substitutes for the lost 1890 federal census.

Two SOLINET workshops will take place in New Orleans this fall, both at discounted rates for Louisiana professionals. The first of these is PRESERVATION MANAGEMENT to be held on Monday, October 29, 2001 at the Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA from 9:00 am - 4:00 pm. The workshop will outline the manager's role in organizing and planning preservation activities in a library or archives. It includes lecture and discussion covering the following topics:

• The nature of library materials, elements of a preservation program, effects of storage conditions
• Organization and planning -- staffing, workflow, needs assessment
• Selection -- determining the best options, and juggling competing needs for traditional activities with digital projects
• Strategies for integrating preservation into library operations

Cost for each is $155, SOLINET members, all membership categories, ($145 early bird, $180 late registration); $195 Non-SOLINET members ($185 early bird, $220 late registration). Any institution within Louisiana qualifies for the member rate.