Manuscript Collection at the Louisiana Historical Center
Manuscript Collection at the Louisiana Historical Center
The general manuscript collection is about 500 ln ft and dates from 1584-present. It varies in type and subject matter, and is diverse, ranging from graduation invitations to Civil War correspondences. In this collection are colonial period documents including the original 1724 Code Noir signed by Louis XV and promulgated at New Orleans, the proclamation establishing the Superior Council in Louisiana in 1716, the letters of patent to Antoine Crozat in 1712, the Company of the West in 1717, and the Pierre Joseph Landry Notebook (1769-1843). The Louisiana Historical Center also houses manuscripts documenting Louisiana's antebellum economic, social, and political history in several collections. Among the most notable are the Cenas Family Papers, (1780-1920), the John McDonough papers, (1813-1846), and the John Slidell papers, (1822-1918), as well as numerous ledgers, notebooks, and journals from several Louisiana Plantations including Mavis Grove Plantation, Magnolia Plantation, Belle Chasse Plantation, and Butler Island Plantation.
The Historical Center manuscript collection also houses twentieth-century collections, which document a variety of subjects. Some of the collections include the Papers of the Louisiana Engineering Society, (1897-1930), the Isaac M. Cline Collection, (1927), the Grace Chamberlain Papers, (1850-1918), and the T. Fonville Winans Collection, (1927-1933). Included in this section of the manuscript collection, are several political and original cartoon art. The following artists represented are; Keith Temple, (1939-1943), John Chase, (1941-1945), Roy Aymond, (1942-1944), Byron Humphrey, (1975-1982), John Slade, (1983-1995), and Wade Welch, (1960-1988). In addition to these collections, the Louisiana Historical Center houses documents from the Battle of New Orleans, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II, and also a sizeable collection of documents related to the medical history of the region.