Early American History

The mission of the archives is to document and care for the historical records, publications, manuscript collections, and related records documenting the Catholic experience in Louisiana.
Take note of the online Sacramental records.

The major research fields are colonial Louisiana, the Louisiana Purchase, the Battle of New Orleans, the Civil War, Mississippi River life, cartography, transportation, plantations, urban development, Louisiana artists and writers, architecture, the French Quarter, jazz and other forms of early New Orleans music, historic preservation, and Mardi Gras. The collections reflect aspects of the history and culture of the Gulf South, Louisiana, and New Orleans.

Part of the New Orleans Public Library, the Louisiana Division is a reference division which collects resources relating to the study of Louisiana and its citizens and to the city of New Orleans and New Orleanians.

Supports the teaching, research, and community-building missions of Tulane University by collecting, preserving, and making easily accessible library and archival resources relating to the study of Louisiana.

Records date from 1735 to July 1970, during the time of Civil Law notarial practice when notaries archived their own records. The records are arranged the way they were created by notary and then by date. Annual indexes maintained by the notaries are bound into their volumes.