| The Historic New Orleans Collection
The Williams Research Center
Founded in 1966 from the personal collections of New Orleans residents L. Kemper and Leila
Williams, the Historic New Orleans Collection is located in the heart of the Vieux Carre. The Collection is a
museum/research center with extensive collections relating to Louisiana's history and culture.
Carnival holdings at the Collection are available in the library, curatorial, and manuscripts departments. In addition to
books on Mardi Gras, the Library houses sheet music, souvenir booklets, guide books, and theses. The Curatorial
Division maintains three-dimensional items, posters, broadsides, invitations, postcards, paintings, and other images.
Besides a general photograph category for Carnival, the collections of Charles L. Franck, Leonard
Huber, Daniel Leyrer,
and Michael Smith contain a significant number of Mardi Gras images. Curatorial also has a large collection of
float and
costume designs (1870-1980s) which include the work of Jennie Wilde, Bror Anders Wikstrom,
Danny Frolich, the
Barth Brothers, and Blaine Kern. As a supplement to original materials, Curatorial also maintains a
file containing
information on artists and designers associated with Carnival. Carnival materials in the Manuscripts Division can be
found in the Terriberry Mardi Gras papers (1907-1940), Walmsley Family Papers (1885-1966),
Walmsley Comus
Collection (1910-1925), School of Design Contracts (1911-1950), Queens of Carnival
Scrapbooks (1953-1982), Anita
Nolan Pitot Collection (1929-1980), Charles Christian Steppe Mardi Gras Papers (1920s-1960s),
Alexander-McClure
Family Papers, and the Henri de Ste. Gême Papers (1831-1838).
The Collection also owns images of nearly all of the halls and theaters where Carnival balls have been staged over the
past century and one-half. Among these are interior views of the magnificent 1859 French Opera House, the elegant
Orpheum Theater, and the Grand Opera House, which once stood on Canal Street. There are exterior images of the
Washington Artillery Hall, the Athanaeum, Grunewald Hall, the Gaiety Theater, Odd Fellows' Hall, and the 1927
Municipal Auditorium, where the majority of krewes have staged their Carnival balls for nearly seventy years.
Various record types derive from various provenances. Holdings of items created by New Orleans Carnival
organizations for the use of their own members and guests include ball invitations, admit cards, programs, dance cards,
souvenirs, posters, broadsides, correspondence, contracts, float building and design records, costume designs,
scrapbooks, ball favors, commemorative jewelry, limited edition doubloons, regal regalia such as crowns and scepters,
and a 1949 film.
Items made commercially for sale to the public include Carnival "bulletins" made to insert in newspapers, broadsides,
books, posters, guides, paintings, prints, lithographs, postcards, slides, stereographs, sheet music, phonographs, and
photographs.
Among personal memorabilia are photographs, invitations, correspondence, and a 1926 Rex Ball film (transferred to
videotape). Studies, analyses, and government records include theses and council records. Business items include
records of float builders and designers, manufacturers, and costume makers.
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