Recreation & Entertainment in the Science & Technology Collection

Sports

The Louisiana State Museum maintains an extensive collection of sports items related to Louisiana athletes, teams, and sporting events. Artifacts include sports equipment used by famous athletes from Louisiana or Louisiana teams and memorabilia such as trophies and souvenirs from sporting events. Notable sports items include a commemorative game football given to former New Orleans Saints quarterback Bobby Hebert and baseballs autographed by baseball legend Melvin Ott. Many of the artifacts from our Sports collection are on display at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches, LA.

Gaming

The museum’s collection of gaming artifacts includes board game pieces such as checkers or chess pieces, playing cards, dominoes, and dice. Many playing card sets in the museum’s holdings date back to mid 19th century, when cards were a primary source of household entertainment. This collection also holds artifacts related to commercial and illegal gambling, such as poker chips, a slot machine, and gambling tokens, primarily from 20th-century Louisiana.

Toys

The museum holds a large collection of children’s toys including many different types of dolls, doll clothing, doll furniture, tea sets, toy cars and boats, toy guns, and action figures. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries are well represented in the toy collection; many bisque and porcelain dolls date back to the early nineteenth century and several early twentieth-century toy cars represent the impact of a newly formed automobile industry. Many nineteenth-century toys can be seen on display in the children’s room at the 1850 House in Jackson Square in New Orleans.