Fall 2011

Our Carnival digitization project reached a major milestone in July when we completed placing our original Carnival float designs online six months ahead of schedule.

LaRC preserves more than 1,300 original Comus, Momus, Proteus, and Rex float designs from the “Golden Age” of Carnival. Included are works by noted designers such as Charles Briton, Jennie Wilde, Carlotta Bonencaze, and Bror Anders Wikstrom. Created as working drawings, these stunning artworks are used by scholars in many fields, including sociology, history, marketing, politics, and literature.

With our float designs now easily available to researchers from around the world, our next step is to place online our more than 3,000 original costume designs. Already available are the famous “Missing Links” costume designs from the 1873 Comus parade.
 

{C} {C} Our reading room now contains a permanent installation of photographs and artifacts recording the contributions Vic and Sunny Schiro to New Orleans. We also have an online exhibit about the Schiros accompanied by a study guide to the Schiros and their times.

Victor Hugo “Vic” Schiro (May 6, 1904 - August 29, 1992), was born in Chicago and moved to New Orleans with his parents as a child. In 1932 he married Mary Margaret Gibbes, better known as “Sunny.” He founded his own insurance company and by the 1940s he and Sunny had both become civic leaders.

In 1950 Schiro was elected commissioner of public buildings and parks, followed by election to councilman-at-large in 1954. When DeLesseps S. "Chep" Morrison resigned as mayor in 1961 to become U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States, the City Council elected Schiro interim mayor. He subsequently won two full terms as Mayor of New Orleans in 1962 and 1966.

Schiro held to a simple governing philosophy, "if it’s good for New Orleans, I’m for it." He initiated a city employee code of ethics, sponsored the New Orleans Regional Planning Commission, and established the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority, but he considered the arrival of the New Orleans Saints and planning the Louisiana Superdome his foremost achievements.

The Victor H. and Margaret G. Schiro Reading Room was made possible by the support of Jack B. McGuire.

Philately is the study of stamps and postal history. Thematic or topical philately is the study of what is depicted on stamps, cancellations, and postal covers, while aerophilately is the branch of postal history specializing in airmail. All of those come together in LaRC’s latest online collection, “The Alfred S. Lippman Collection of Louisiana Postal Aviation History.”

The collection uses stamps, covers, and cancellations to record Louisiana’s aviation history. It includes envelopes autographed by famous Louisiana aviators, covers and cancellations marking Louisiana aviation events (such as the passing of the naval zeppelin U.S.S. Akron over New Orleans) and covers documenting important events in airmail history, such as the first flight of airmail from Atlanta to New Orleans. The items are fun, interesting, educational, and quite rare. In addition, the online collection includes a study guide to Louisiana’s very significant contributions to aviation.

The online version of the Lippman postal aviation collection was made possible in part by the support of the Gail and Alfred S. Lippman Family Fund and the Tulane University Office of the Provost.

With another election season underway, please keep all Louisiana election flyers, brochures, and mailings and forward them to LaRC. LaRC preserves an outstanding collection of historical Louisiana campaign literature, with holdings extending from 1860 to the present. To keep the collection current, we depend on supporters donating the campaign literature they receive.

Political handouts can contain a surprising wealth of information, including a candidate’s photograph, resume, occupation, political party and faction, family members, race, social status, religion, club memberships, and more. Because of its high research value, we’ve placed our campaign literature from 1860-1920 online here. In addition to being a valuable research resource unique to Tulane, it’s also a wonderful look at politics from the past.
 

{C} {C} LaRC was represented at the Society of American Archivists’ 75^th annual meeting, held during the last week of August in Chicago. Eira Tansey presented a poster session describing how LaRC combined in-house resources with vendor-provided services to place more than six hundred archival guides online within one year. Eira’s poster is available here.

Leon Miller presented a paper on “Updating a ‘Traditional’ Ephemera Collection.” Lee described LaRC’s several-year project to modernize its collection of Louisiana brochures and pamphlets. Encompassing more than sixty filing cabinets and 8,000+ file folders, the collection is now LaRC’s most heavily used resource. Lee’s presentation (sans text) is available here. Also at the meeting, Lee was nominated for SAA president.