Photographic Collections

The Louisiana State Museum has partnered with the LOUISiana Digital Library to produce a digital collection of more than 3,400 photographs of Louisiana cities, culture, people, landscape, and waterways. These historical photographs date from mid 1800 to early 1900 and were taken by many of the well known photographers of the day.

Rowles Stereographic Collection
Grant Rowles, an amateur photographer and collector, amassed this impressive collection of 389 stereograph photographs acquired by the Louisiana State Museum. This collection of vintage albumen prints of New Orleans and Louisiana date from mid 1860s to the early 20th century. Many of the well-known photographers of the day including S. T. Blessing, Theodore Lillenthal and George François Mugnier are well represented.

Robert Tebbs Collection
Robert Tebbs, the prominent New York based architectural photographer, traveled to Louisiana in 1926. In a series of two hundred prints, Tebbs documented the existing and often decaying conditions of the plantations homes in southern Louisiana. Many of the plantations photographed such as Belle Grove, have not survived over time. The museum has a selection of Tebbs' vintage prints and original negatives of Louisiana.

Frances Benjamin Johnston Collection
A collection of signed vintage prints by the famed female photographer, this series was part of the Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture (PAEAA), which was the first photographic collection for the study of American architecture assembled at the Library of Congress.

Olidé Schexnayder Collection
At the turn of the century Olidé Schexnayder lived and worked as a photographer in the small Acadian village of Edgard located in St. John the Baptiste Parish. The collection includes portraits and documentary photographs of everyday life on the German Coast of the Mississippi River.

Chamber of Commerce Collection
Commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce in 1917, the photographer Covert created a pictorial record of the existing industrial, commercial, and civic conditions in the warehouse district and throughout New Orleans. These 981 workplace photographs document the diverse business and labor conditions in New Orleans.

John N. Teunisson Collection
As a commercial photographer, John Norris Teunisson (1869-1959) documented the New Orleans area during the first two decades of the twentieth century. Working in a documentary style, he photographed historic occasions such as President Taft's visit to New Orleans, as well as downtown businesses and the launching of ships. The collection contains 467 vintage silver gelatin prints.

Robert Maestri Collection
Robert Maestri (1889-1974), served as Mayor of New Orleans from 1936 until 1946. The Maestri Collection of photographs includes family portraits and snapshots, as well as portraits and snapshots of family friends, Maestri's immediate household, and both sides of their respective families. Many are of the subjects are identified, but quite a few remain anonymous, especially those in the scrapbooks. Of the identified photos, secondary family names such as Healy, Kelly, Nicholson, Quinn, Cahill, Taylor, Carroll, and Shally are represented. There are numerous images from Maestri's political life, including photos of Huey P. Long, and Earl K. Long. There are 833 photographs in this collection.

George François Mugnier
George Francois Mugnier was born in Switzerland in 1857. His father, Jules Jacques Mugnier, brought him to New Orleans shortly after the American Civil War. G.F. Mugnier opened his first commercial photography studio in 1884. This collection of photographs documents the people and sites of New Orleans and southern Louisiana during the 1880s to 1920s. The 1,169 Mugnier images in the digital library are from the glass plate negatives.

Jazz Collections

Photographs, audio recordings and musical instruments from the collections of the Louisiana State Museum. Primarily dealing with traditional New Orleans jazz, the collections focus on photographs (including all of the Museum's images of Louis Armstrong) and audio recordings of musicians and bands that were primarily active in New Orleans, although many toured throughout the country and the world. The musical instruments span the makeup of a traditional New Orleans jazz band and include many examples from well-known musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Warren "Baby" Dodds, Bix Beiderbecke and others.

This digital collection is a part of a larger project entitled LaGumbo: A Recipe for Empowerment, which is funded through an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant. The project is a two-year effort to provide digital resources to K-12 education.

Louisiana State Museum Historic Map Collection

The Louisiana State Museum’s cartographic holdings, comprised of original works as well as photostat, photographic and facsimile reproductions, are dated 1525 to the present. Many of these works are housed in the special collections of Dr. and Mrs. E. Ralph Lupin, Helen and Solis Seiferth, Machrina Francois, Gladys Mossmeir, and Gaspar Cusachs. The museum’s collection contains maps related to the exploration and settlement of Louisiana during the colonial period as well as maps delineating Louisiana and her cities after the Louisiana Purchase, from 1803 to the present time. Other works depict the Mississippi River and her delta, other Louisiana waterways, the Battle of New Orleans and the Civil War, the Gulf of Mexico, the circum-Caribbean region, as well as Canada and South America.

Paintings from the Louisiana State Museum