Architecture in the Science & Technology Collection

Items in the architectural collection range from pieces of prominent buildings to objects used to facilitate plumbing and temperature control within commonplace period interiors. Artifacts might have been directly removed from the structures in which they stood or found using archaeological field methods. Notable examples include:

Models

The museum possesses several architectural models, including a model of the St. Louis Cathedral, Gallier Hall, the Government House of the French Colony of Louisiana, the Cabildo, and the Ursuline Covent. Many architectural models were made in-house at the museum in the 1930s. On a popular note, LSM maintains possession of a model fort used in the filming of Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer, filmed in 1937.

Specific Building Features

The museum maintains a collection of artifacts that were found in or were part of prominent Louisiana buildings. Some of the buildings represented include the St. Louis Hotel, the St. Charles Hotel, and the Ursuline Convent in New Orleans. This collection includes building features such as door hinges, keys to windows, doors, and shutters.

Hurricane Katrina

The museum collected numerous artifacts related to Hurricane Katrina representing the disaster and post-disaster recovery. Among the Katrina artifacts are building and construction components such as rebar from the 17th Street Canal, a FEMA trailer door key, and a garage door featuring markings left by an SPCA rescue team.

Garage Door with SPCA and Hurricane Katrina Rescue Markings, 2005
Aluminum
Gift of Cynthia and Brenda Anne Du Faur
Louisiana State Museum 2006.043

Garage door with markings spray-painted by rescue teams following Hurricane Katrina. Currently on display in Living with Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond at the Presbytère in New Orleans.

Tommie Elton Mabry's Diary
August–October 2005
Latex paint, marking pen
Gift of the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO)
Louisiana State Museums 2008.059.1 a-d

When Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August of 2005, Tommie Elton Mabry kept a diary on the walls of an apartment in the near-empty B. W. Cooper Housing Development. Mabry's diary was preserved for the Living with Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond exhibit just before the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) demolished the building to make way for a new mixed-income development. This wall captures the difficult living conditions, uncertainties, and emotional strain of living in a catastrophically damaged city, especially for those who lacked the means to leave.

Assorted hinges common on doors in historic buildings in Louisiana. The Louisiana State Museum holds a collection of over 400 building components, such as hinges, bricks, locks, nails, and many other related items.

Bracket, c. 1880
Wood
Gift of Friends of the Cabildo
Louisiana State Museums 1996.15.02

Eastlake style bracket, a common exterior feature of late 19th century houses in New Orleans.

Architectural Model of the Theatre D’Orleans
Thompson & Foster, c. 1933
Plaster, wood, glue, paper, cellophane, pigment, metal hardware
Louisiana State Museums 2011.014

The Theatre D’Orleans model was made by Thompson and Foster in the LSM studio in the early 1930s. It exemplifies architecture by LaCarriere, LaTour, and Laclotte. The Theatre D’Orleans was destroyed by fire in 1816.

Architectural Model of the Government House of the French Colony of Louisiana
Thompson & Foster, c. 1933
Plaster, wood, glue, paper, cellophane, pigment, metal hardware
Louisiana State Museums 2011.011

The Government House of the French Colony of Louisiana was located on the land now occupied by the Pontalba buildings in Jackson Square in New Orleans. This model was built by Thompson and Foster in the LSM studio and aids in preserving the history of the French Superior Council, the first governing body of Louisiana.

Science & Technology Collection