Library Guides: Louisiana Information Sources: A Guide: Archives & Special Collections

Intro

Below are some of the major archives and special collections at Tulane, in New Orleans, and elsewhere in Louisiana.

To access digitized historical materials pertaining to Louisiana, scroll down to Digital Collections.

Tulane

The following archives and special collections are located on Tulane's uptown and downtown campuses. Visit each collection's individual webpage for visitor information, search tips, and research support.

The Latin American Library Special Collections
The Latin American Library (LAL) Special Collections house over 6,600 linear feet of unique and rare material across multiple collections: manuscripts, image archive, ephemera, maps, newspapers, and rare books and pamphlets. While not a core strength, the LAL has several collections that shed light on the history of Latinxs in New Orleans and on connections between New Orleans, Latin America, and the Caribbean.
The Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection
The Newcomb Archives collects, preserves, and makes available records that document the legacy of Newcomb College and the history of women and gender in the Gulf South. The Nadine Robbert Vorhoff Collection is a non-circulating special collections library devoted to women's education, prescriptive literature, culinary history, Newcomb authors, gender and sexuality, third-wave feminist zines, and other topics.
Amistad Research Center
The Amistad Research Center is committed to collecting, preserving, and providing open access to original materials that reference the social and cultural importance of America's ethnic and racial history, the African Diaspora, human relations, and civil rights. While global in scope, one of Amistad's strengths is New Orleans and Louisiana history.
The Matas Library Historic Collections
The Matas Library Historic Collections include important historic medical monographs and a number of rare atlases. One collection of note is The Faust Collection, which includes historic works on parasitology and tropical medicine (1628-1910). There is also a great deal of material on yellow fever and other tropical and infectious diseases. The majority of these publications are from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century (prior to WWI). These collections are not generally available in the online catalog, but must be accessed by using the old card catalog.
Medical Memorabilia at the Matas Library
The Medical Memorabilia Collection at the Rudolph Matas Library for the Health Sciences includes letters, autographs, and portraits of renowned scientists and physicians from the 19th to mid-20th century. Of particular note are the Elizabeth Bass Collection on Women in Medicine and artifacts from Tulane's World War II Medical Unit.
The John Minor Wisdom Collection at the Tulane Law Library
John Minor Wisdom served on the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals (Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and the Panama Canal Zone) for forty-two years, starting in 1957. The John Minor Wisdom collection spans over thirty years of his judiciary work. It consists of his judicial papers and personal library, which he used to write his opinions. Along with material on civil rights and historical civil law literature, Judge Wisdom also collected a number of items related to Louisiana and New Orleans history. There is also a large selection of materials related to language and the art of writing.
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Microforms Collection
While not an archive or special collection per se, Tulane Libraries' Media Services department houses an extensive collection of newspapers, magazines, unpublished archival material, and rare books on microfilm and microfiche. Much of this material has never been digitized for online access nor has it been published in print.
Louisiana History Manuscripts on Microfilm
The microforms collection at Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is a rich and diverse collection across a range of subjects. Our holdings in Louisiana History are particularly strong. Many of these manuscripts have never been digitized and some are unique to Tulane. This guide lists a selection of the Louisiana-subject manuscript microfilm titles currently housed in Media Services in Howard-Tilton Memorial Library, 6th Floor.

New Orleans

The City Archives & Special Collections (New Orleans Public Library)
The City Archives & Special Collections holds the official repository of the records of the Municipal Government of the City of New Orleans, 1769 to the present. They also preserve collections important to the history of the city, including: a Carnival Collection, Local Photograph Collection, Map Collection, Menu Collection, Postcard Collection, Manuscript Collection, and Rare Book Collection. The Division's extensive Genealogy Collection contains books, periodicals and microfilms with emphasis on New Orleans, Louisiana, the Southeast United States, Nova Scotia, France, and Spain.
Historic New Orleans Collection
The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to the stewardship of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South. Its 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.
Archdiocese of New Orleans - Office of Records and Archives
The Office of Archives and Records serves as the official repository for the records of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The Office of Archives and Records holds approximately 6,000 cubic feet of boxed archival material (administrative files, property files, organizational files, parish visitation reports, institutional histories, photograph collections); 528 bound volumes of primary-source material (funeral expenses, pulpit announcements, diaries, scrapbooks, minute books); and approximately 1,500 sacramental registers dating from the late 18th century to the present. The sacramental records are an especially rich source for the study of immigration patterns, community development, ethnic origins, social history, linguistic practices, family history, and cultural diversity. Records from 1772 to 1818 have been digitized.
Law Library of Louisiana - Special Collections
Located in the Supreme Court Building in New Orleans, the Law Library of Louisiana, founded in 1838, contains nearly 150,000 volumes in print, microform, and online formats. The special collections include historical Spanish law codes, Louisiana acts, Louisiana Supreme Court reports and more, dating back to the 16th century.
Xavier University of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections
The Xavier University of Louisiana Archives & Special Collections maintains and preserves a unique collection of manuscripts, university records, photographs, ephemera, and rare books focused on African Americans, Black Catholics, New Orleans Communities, Louisiana History, and the Gulf Coast Region.
Earl K. Long Library Louisiana and Special Collections (University of New Orleans)
The Earl K. Long Library's Louisiana and Special Collections contains over 500 manuscript collections, which include records of local businesses, papers of former UNO faculty members and other local figures, New Orleans and Louisiana ephemera, government documents such as the Supreme Court of Louisiana Historical Archives, and more. The Reading Room contains books, periodicals, government documents, local city directories, and other materials related to the history and culture of Louisiana, with a special focus on New Orleans.
Dillard University Archives and Special Collections
Dillard University is a Historically Black University whose history stretches back to the founding of Straight University in New Orleans in 1868. Their Archives and Special Collections include the papers of pivotal figures in the history of the university from the 19th century to present, with a strong focus on African American history, the history of race relations and civil rights, and the history of New Orleans.
Louisiana State Museum Historical Center
The Louisiana Historical Center, located in the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint, houses the Louisiana Colonial Judicial Records of both the French Superior Council (1714-1769) and the Spanish Judiciary (1769-1803); a wealth of other manuscripts collections from the 16th to 20th centuries; 1,400 original maps dating from 1525 to present; non-Jazz sheet music published from 1829-1958; a rich collection of late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Louisiana newspaper; scrapbooks dating from 1852-1956, including ones compiled by the Works Progress Administration; and microfilmed records of colonial Louisiana.
Notarial Archives of New Orleans
The Notarial Archives' 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, then by date. Because New Orleans was once a French and a Spanish colony, records prior to the Louisiana Purchase (1803) are in French or Spanish. After the Louisiana Purchase, many 19th century records continued to be written in French. In addition to textual records, tens of thousands of which contain site surveys, the Research Center houses thousands of oversize watercolor architectural drawings of 19th century properties known as Plan Book plans.

Baton Rouge & Lafayette

State Library of Louisiana
The State Library in Baton Rouge includes a Louisiana Documents Repository with copies of all state agency publications; a Louisiana Collection with rare materials documenting the history of the state; and genealogical resources.
LSU (Louisiana State University) Special Collections
LSU's rich Special Collections encompasses the following collections and centers: Louisiana & Lower Mississippi Valley; Manuscript Collections; Book Collections; University Archives; Louisiana Newspapers; Digital Collections; T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History; State Documents; Free People of Color; and the E. A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection.
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Special Collections
UL Special Collections includes an Acadiana Manuscript Collection, Rare Book Collection, Cajun & Creole Music Collection, Ernest J. Gaines Center, and Blanco Public Policy Center.

Digital Collections

Louisiana Digital Library This link opens in a new window
Louisiana's doorway to the unique cultural and historical resources of Louisiana's libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. Tulane University is a participating institution in the Louisiana Digital Library, a program of the Louisiana Digital Consortium.

The institutions whose digital collections can be discovered through the LDL are:

Amistad Research Center
Calcasieu Parish Public Library
Delgado Community College
East Baton Rouge Parish Library
Law Library of Louisiana
Louisiana State Archives
Louisiana State Museum
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University at Alexandria
Louisiana State University at Shreveport
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport
Louisiana Tech University
Loyola University New Orleans
McNeese State University
Nicholls State University
Northwestern State University
Southern University
State Library Of Louisiana
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Tulane University
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
University of Louisiana at Monroe
University of New Orleans
Vermilionville Living History Museum & Folklife Park
Webster Parish Library

Tulane University Digital Library
Distinctive open access digital content that delights, celebrates diverse ideas and experiences, and elevates critical thinking, to help us think, learn, and act with integrity and wisdom.
XULA Digital Archives
Xavier University of Louisiana's Digital Archives contains a wealth of internationally and locally valued historical manuscripts, photographs, videos, ephemera, and university records. Includes multiple collections documenting slavery and freedom in Louisiana and the U.S.
Sacramental Records of the Archdiocese of New Orleans
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has digitized the baptism, marriage, and funeral records of people of diverse racial and ethnic identities from 1772 to 1818.
The City Archives & Special Collections Photographs and Digital Collections (New Orleans Public Library)
The City Archives & Special Collections Photographs and Digital Collections includes thousands of photographic prints, negatives, slides, posters, brochures, and born-digital images from individual photographers and New Orleans municipal government agencies.
Louisiana Colonial Documents Digitization Project
Digitized records from New Orleans’s French Superior Council (1714-1769) and Spanish Judicial Records (1769-1803).
Keywords for Black Louisiana
A burgeoning project to create digital portals into the history of Africans and people of African descent in Gulf Coast Louisiana.