| Touro Infirmary Archives
1401 Foucher St.
Touro Infirmary, founded in the New Orleans warehouse district near the Mississippi River in 1852,
is the oldest private hospital in the city. It was established by the New Orleans philanthropist Judah Touro, who also
named the
institution a beneficiary of his will. Touro Infirmary moved to its present location in the then sparsely-settled Uptown
section of New Orleans in 1882. Throughout its long history, the institution has been in the forefront of research
in medicine and surgical procedure. Prominent early staff members include the legendary Dr. Rudolph Matas, I.I.
Lemann, A.L. Levine, and Alton Ochsner.
The Touro Archives, located in newly-renovated quarters in the Selma Feitel Gumbel Building at 3450 Chestnut St.,
corner Aline, opened in 1992. Its collection (1852 to present) includes the hospital's historical records, memorabilia,
photographs, minute books, annual reports, and admission
records, along with privately-donated manuscript collections. Medical exhibits
are displayed in the Frank Mayer Besthoff History Gallery on the mezzanine of
the Gumbel Building, a part of the hospital complex.
Mardi Gras has had an interesting influence on Touro's history. The hospital's prominence and proximate location to the
city's most popular parade route have, as may be imagined, had an effect on its administrative procedures and emergency
room. Members of the Board and staff have been kings and queens of Mardi Gras balls, and hospital publications reflect
the traditions of Carnival. A masked jester shares the cover of a March, 1936 medical staff meetings report along with a
drawing of a new bas relief over the Prytania Street entrance by the famous artist Enrique Alferez. A 1949 issue of
TourOvue features a cover drawing of children crying "Hey Mister! Throw me Sumpin!," complete with muledrawn
floats lit with flambeaux. A 1952 staff publication sends "Greetings for the Mardi Gras" from the Krewe of TourOvue. A
1945 wartime publication, "Mardi Gras in Italy," depicts a "celebration put on by the Tulane [Medical] Unit as genuine
as any Mardi Gras New Orleans." It features maskers costumed as Eleanor Roosevelt, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin,
Churchill, and others, all ruled over by King SNAFU the First.
Current records include invitations and photographs from the "Mardi Gras Mambo," an annual staff party held on the
Saturday before Shrove Tuesday during one of the day parades nearby on St. Charles Avenue.
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