On December 8, 1941, just one day after the Pearl Harbor attacks, the United States officially entered World War II – Louisiana, however, was already front and center in the country’s defense preparations. From 1940 to 1945, the state hosted the largest maneuvers in US military history, witnessed massive changes to its industrial base, and saw...
As part of New Orleans’ tricentennial activities, the Cabildo is proud to open a brand new exhibition, We Love You, New Orleans. Celebrating the people, places and things that make New Orleans one of the nation’s most unique cities to visitors and residents alike, the exhibition plays as a love letter to the city from the Louisiana...
The Capitol Park Museum is honored to present the 1966 Cadillac Superior Coach hearse that transported the body of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. after his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968. The hearse carried King’s body from the hospital to the funeral home and then from the funeral home to the Memphis airport where...
This tricentennial exhibition organized by the Louisiana State Museum and guest curator Randolph Delehanty, Ph.D. tells the city-defining story of Don Andrés Almonester and his formidable daughter, Micaela, the Baroness de Pontalba. It shows how a father’s philanthropy and a daughter’s determination created the urban heart and the architectural...
Photographer Aníbal Martel and researcher Thenesoya V. Martín De la Nuez are the Canarian co-creators of CISLANDERUS, a four-year long cultural and artistic project dedicated to the Canary Islanders community in Louisiana, the living legacy of the 18-Century Canarian immigration to New Orleans. Through over one hundred interviews and an...
This exhibition celebrates one of Louisiana’s greatest natural resources, the Atchafalaya Swamp Basin. Originally on display at the West Baton Rouge Museum in 2017, this new version will be tailored for the Wedell-Williams Aviation and Cypress Sawmill Museum. Photography and sculpture by well-known Louisiana artists, photographers Greg Guirard...
Between Land and Sea, presented in partnership with the New Orleans Photo Alliance in conjunction with the 13th annual PhotoNOLA festival, explores personal histories and communities’ relationships to the New Orleans landscape. Artists Binh Danh, Jennifer Shaw, and David Knox explore paths of migration and growth,...
This Tricentennial exhibit tunes in to the seminal rhythms of Congo Square and the earliest days of jazz, latter-day Louis Armstrong and the birth of American festival culture, the international hip-hop takeover of Cash Money and No Limit, the evolution of a brass-band riff as mobile as the second-line parades that bring it to life, and more...
Maps shown in this exhibition represent the evolution of New Orleans over three centuries. The Mississippi River’s influence is always apparent, its curve bestowing the nickname Crescent City. Geographical constraints are evident, with cypress swamps dominating the landscape until engineers drained low-lying areas. Maps highlight momentous...
Drumsville!: Evolution of the New Orleans Beat explores the role of percussion and rhythm in New Orleans and how the innovative drummers from the Crescent City continually changed that role and took it around the planet. The exhibit has a beautiful sampling of photographs and drums from everyone from Warren “Baby” Dodd and Jack Laine...
Soul of the South: Selections from the Gitter-Yelen Collection includes more than eighty paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works of art created by forty-eight self-taught artists from across the American South. Dr. Kurt Gitter and his wife, Alice Rae Yelen, former Assistant Director for Education at New Orleans Museum of...
Soul of the South: Selections from the Gitter-Yelen Collection includes more than eighty paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works of art created by forty-eight self-taught artists from across the American South.
Dr. Kurt Gitter and his wife, Alice Rae Yelen, former Assistant Director for Education at New Orleans Museum of...
2018 is both the New Orleans Tricentennial and the Centennial of the birth of the most beloved and influential pianist in New Orleans history: Henry Roland Byrd aka Professor Longhair. This exhibit will celebrate all things Fess starting with his origins and development to his early hits such as “Tipitinas,” “Mardi Gras In New Orleans,” and “...
Noel Rockmore was one of the great painters of music and musicians in mid 20th century New Orleans. His daughter Emilie Rhys resides in New Orleans and is an artist of great sensitivity and technique. Their paintings have never been exhibited together, but they will have their family reunion at the New Orleans Jazz Museum.
Since 1699, when Pierre Le Moyne, sieur d’Iberville, celebrated Shrove Tuesday at his encampment on the Mississippi River, Mardi Gras has been an integral part of Louisiana’s culture. Experience this extraordinary tradition through rare artifacts, scores of magnificent costumes,...
This exhibition celebrates the legacy of aviation pioneers Jimmie Wedell and Harry P. Williams, who formed an air service in Patterson in 1928 that quickly rose to the top tier of air racing. Displays include numerous replica aircraft, such as the famous Miss Patterson #44 and the Gilmore #121,...
This exhibition commemorates the Battle of New Orleans. The overwhelming defeat of the British Redcoats at the hands of a rag tag band of “dirty shirts”—as the British derisively called their foes—captured the American imagination, contributed to a sense of national identity and...
Grounds for Greatness: Louisiana and the Nation shows Louisiana’s impact on the nation and the world. From the Louisiana Purchase to the critical role Louisiana played in our nation’s wars (including the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, the Civil War and both World...
Combining eyewitness accounts, historical context, immersive environments and in-depth scientific exploration, this exhibition shows the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and how Louisiana is learning to live more safely with hurricanes. Oral histories and artifacts, such as a Coast...
An exhibition of photographs from the museums permanent collection, the images show the resilience of the people of Louisiana in the face of adversity and their enduring goodwill toward neighbors in times of disaster. Sept. 9, 2015, marks the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Betsy....
When Pete Fountain died Aug. 6, 2016, it was not only the passing of an icon, but also the end of the era. In tribute to this legendary icon, the Louisiana State Museum’s New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U. S. Mint presents Pete Fountain: A Life Half-Fast, an exhibition commemorating...
This exhibition tells the story of how diverse groups of people—Caddo Indians, French and Spanish settlers, free and enslaved Africans and rural Southern whites—created the distinctive regional culture that thrives today. With vibrant displays and diverse artifacts dating from the 1700s...
Discover Louisiana’s cypress lumber industry of the late 19th and 20th centuries. Patterson was the industry’s heart, with the largest cypress sawmill in the world at the F.B. Williams Cypress Company. Photographs and tools—including an 1890 passe-partout, or crosscut saw—tell the story...
Sports are a passion in Louisiana, as much a part of our rich culture and heritage as music, food and architecture. Now there’s a place to relive the great moments in Louisiana sports history and celebrate the achievements of our greatest athletes. Every day is game day at the Louisiana...
Every year in June new people are formally inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame at the Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Natchitoches. In 2018, six-time Pro Bowl receiver Reggie Wayne, 18-year Major League Baseball pitcher Russ Springer, NBA champion and two-time Grambling...
Exploring this National Historic Landmark will offer both a tour through a historical structure and the culture that surrounded the home throughout history. Situated on the banks of Bayou Lafourche, this was the residence of two of Louisiana’s significant political figures: Governor...
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame has more than 300 men and women on its roster. Our interactive database can provide you with information on Hall inductees. You can look up figures by name, sport, hometown or alma mater and find out more about his or her career and biographical...
Take a road trip through the state, exploring regional culture, religious practices, foodways and architecture. Another feature highlights the rich legacy of Louisiana music—jazz, rhythm and blues, blues, country, zydeco, swamp pop and Cajun music—and its global influence. Key artifacts...
Part of the Lower Pontalba Building on Jackson Square, this row house represents mid-19th century life in New Orleans. Because residents were tenants who lived here for only a few years at a time, the 1850 House furnishings do not represent any single family. Rather it reflects mid-19th...
The Old U.S. Mint began producing coins for the United States in 1838. During the Civil War, it briefly issued Confederate coins, making this mint the only one to make both American and Confederate coins. Minting operations ceased in 1909, and for the next several decades the building...
Some of New Orleans jazz’s most beloved figures are women, from Sweet Emma Barrett to Aurora Nealand. Yet in many historical accounts of jazz history, women are relegated to the background or not mentioned at all. Like many aspects of the culture around it, early jazz was a world...
