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...
Beading with the Big Chief showcases the work of students in our inaugural adult beading course taught by Big Chief Darryl Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas Hunters. Over the course of eight weeks, students explored the history, traditions, and techniques of Mardi Gras Indians and created their own hand-sewn beaded designs. Their...
Spanish Town Mardi Gras: 40 Years of Good Times And Bad Decisions commemorates forty years of Baton Rouge’s unique Spanish Town Mardi Gras Parade and thirty years of the infamous Spanish Town Mardi Gras Ball. Artifacts and images from the founders of Spanish Town Mardi Gras tell the story of how an informal neighborhood gathering grew...
The New Orleans Jazz Museum will debut a new exhibition, New Orleans Music Observed: The Art of Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys on Thursday, January 30, 2020. This new exhibition brings together for the first time the musical portraits of acclaimed artists Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys. The exhibition opens with a reception at the...
The New Orleans Jazz Museum will debut a new exhibition, New Orleans Music Observed: The Art of Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys on Thursday, January 30, 2020. This new exhibition brings together for the first time the musical portraits of acclaimed artists Noel Rockmore and Emilie Rhys.
The exhibition opens with a reception at the...
This exhibition captures the passions behind two popular pursuits in Louisiana, bass fishing and waterfowl hunting. For those eager to catch lunkers (large bass) and shoot the game birds that winter here, including specklebelly geese and dos gris ducks (“doe-gree,” the French name for lesser scaup), Louisiana is a truly a sportsman’s paradise....
Today eighteen Louisiana Neo-Classical armoires survive from the workshop of the "Butterfly Man...," a cabinetmaker who created furniture between about 1800 and 1825. Their maker came to be known in the early twentieth century as the Butterfly Man for his signature use of the double dovetail (also called a “butterfly” or “flying Dutchman”), a...
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 “...
Le Kèr Creole (The Creole Heart): Runaway Slaves, Music, and Memory in Louisiana follows the story of Juan San Malo, the leader of a runaway slave community in 1780s, to share the story of Louisiana Creole language and music. Photography by Bruce Sunpie Barnes; lithophanes and paintings by Francis X....
Between the demise of the lumber business and the rise of the oil industry, Berwick Bay experienced an unprecedented shrimp boom in the late 1930s following the “discovery” of a large school of jumbo-sized white shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. By some accounts, Morgan City – the self-proclaimed “shrimp capital of the world” – produced about a...
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 Louisiana State Museum is proud to announce the first-of-its-kind comprehensive exhibition on the history of gay carnival at the Presbytère in Jackson Square. Grand Illusions: The History and Artistry of Gay Carnival in New Orleans brings together more than two hundred artifacts including posters and poster artwork, ball...
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...
From "Buona Sera" to "Just A Gigolo," that "Old Black Magic" still has the world under Louis Prima’s spell! Join us at the New Orleans Jazz Museum for the exhibit The Wildest: Louis Prima Comes Home. As a trumpeter, singer, songwriter and performer, this son of New Orleans sons swinging persona conquered New York, Las Vegas, Hollywood...
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....
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
