Photographs
City Archives
Date range: ca. 1955-1971
In Act 38 of 1950 the Louisiana Legislature provided for the creation of a Civil Defense Agency in the state and also authorized the governing body of each community in the state to establish a local organization for civil defense in accordance with the state plan. Ordinance 18314 CCCS (1952) confirmed the establishment of the Office of Civil Defense in New Orleans. The ordinance authorized this office to "prepare for, coordinate, and carry out all emergency measures other than military, necessary to minimize and repari injury and damage resulting from disasters caused by enemy attacks or other hostile action, or by fire, flood, earthquakes, or other natural causes." The office was headed by a Director, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Mayor. In the mid-1980s, the office changed its name to the Office of Emergency Management. It currently operates under the name of the Office of Emergency Preparedness.
This group of photographs documents some of the activities of the Office of Civil Defense during its earlier years, including the construction of the now abandoned Civil Defense Control Center on the Lakefront. The prints were scanned as grayscale images at 400 dpi and saved as TIFFs, which are being retained as archival masters. The TIFFs were edited to produce the 600 pixel JPEGs and the 150 pixel JPEG thumbnails displayed on the pages listed below.
The prints are numbered and filed sequentially. Click on the links below to view thumbnail images; each thumbnail links to a larger image.
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