Displacement

This week is my last at Tulane University Libraries' Southeastern Architectural Archive. I have taken a position as head of the Richard L. D. and Marjorie J. Morse Department of Special Collections at Kansas State University.

In sorting through personal and professional files, I've come across a few things I had set aside to investigate later. Photographs of costumed ladies posed against painted backdrops, a flood-devastated western town, bright linens hanging outside a rustic lakeside cabin (above). I acquired all these images by digging through boxes at the Originals Mall of Antiques in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. None of them bore any textual identification, familial or geographic designations.

The Western Town

A series of three photographs documented some natural disaster, possibly a bad storm and/or flood. I had speculated the pictures were from the late 19-teens, but using a Peak Lupe 8x Model 2018, I could make out the following building markers:

Hotel Vail (below,  left)

Santa Fe / The Hub (below, center)

The Hotel Vail is still standing and is on the National Register, so identifying the locale as Pueblo, Colorado was fairly easy.

Not knowing anything about Pueblo's history, I used America's Historic Newspapers database and Denver Public Library's Digital Collections to confirm that the event was the June 3, 1921 flood. The unidentified photographer focused his/her lens on the the vicinity of the high water mark along Union Avenue. At its peak, the flood covered over 300 square miles.

The Photo Postcard Studio

A series of four real-photo postcards presented women dressed in costumes set against painted backdrops or decorative curtains. They seemed to be from the 1940s, and given the subject matter, most likely from the Great Plains. The photographer used EKC paper with undivided backs, but none of the versos bear anything more distinctive.

There is a Cultivator

And a Reaper

And Two Harvesters

And a Geisha

Yes, a geisha. With a cherry blossom kimono and a peacock-feathered fan.

In the last decade, there has been a growing interest in rural studio photography:

The John Michael Kohler Art Center's current exhibit Bringing to Light: The Massengill Family Photo Collection (through 17 January) features portraits produced in an Arkansas mobile studio. Many of the images are hand-colored close-up photographs; some can be viewed via Maxine Payne's 2004 Making Pictures: Three for a Dime.

Luc Sante's Folk Photography: The American Real-Photo Postcard (2009) addresses the proliferation of small-town photo postcards during the early twentieth century. Sante's interest in the format stemmed from a random encounter with a New York peddler over thirty years ago.

NEW! William Henry Jackson Finding Aid

With the assistance of Tulane University M.P.S. student Ahleah Boise, the Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the William Henry Jackson Photochroms. This collection consists of over 300 color prints dating from 1898 to 1906.

Read more about the collection in the online finding aid here.

If you are unfamiliar with the Southeastern Architectural Archive's holdings, consult its list of "Finding Aids by Collection Name."

Lost Milwaukee

The previous post mentioned Richard Koch's collection of glass plate negatives, and the Southeastern Architectural Archive's current efforts to digitize them. Many of the plates document the 1915 hurricane and its effects on Orleans Parish. Some images record Mardi Gras festivities, masks and costumes in Storyville and other neighborhoods (circa 1902-1906). One photograph is a bird's eye view of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (circa 1905, shown above).

We gleaned the identification from the enormous advertising signage on the building in the lower left corner.  It reads:  "Jacobi & Richter Foreign Produce and Fancy Groceries." The business enterprise specialized in imported meats and cheeses, and was located at 510 and 512 Market Street, near the city's Cathedral Square. The Milwaukee Public Library has digitized a more recent image of the store here (circa 1920s).

Image above:  Unidentified photographer. Bird's Eye View of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Circa 1905. Richard Koch Papers and Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

100 Years Ago

100 years ago today, New Orleans was hammered by high winds , tides and copious rainfall. The storm hit the Crescent City the evening of September 28th. By the next morning winds had increased to 40 mph and by the early evening , there were reports of sustained wind velocities at 80 mph and gusts of 120-130 mph. The minimum barometer reading registered at 28.11 inches.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive has been in the process of digitizing a number of glass plate negatives that document the hurricane's aftermath. The images are most likely the work of photographer John Norris Teunisson (1869-1959).  The plates were once acquired by New Orleans architect Richard Koch. Stored in large wooden boxes, some were broken, all were in deteriorated condition.

Zachary Wubben, a Tulane undergraduate working on the project, is currently developing metadata for the images, as most were unidentified or partially identified.  The SEAA plans to launch a new digital collection featuring the images in the near future.

If you want to read more about the hurricane from a contemporary source, consult Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans General Superintendent George G. Earl's October 14 1915 report here, made available by the University of Chicago.

Images above:  John N. Teunisson, attributed. 1915 Hurricane, New Orleans, LA.  1915. Digital surrogates from glass negatives created 2015. Richard Koch Photographs and Papers, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

UPhO #9

We are in the process of inventorying a collection of glass plate negatives and came across this one of Leonhard's Casino. We suspect it may have been out at West End, but have been unable to prove it. Does anyone out there know?

UPDATE:  Many thanks to Historic District Landmarks Commission's architectural historian, Lillian McNee, who provided us with documentation for the building. Leonhard's Casino was located at the Spanish Fort.

"Good Strong Young Porter."[Classified] The New Orleans Item 25 August 1912.

"For Leonhard's Casino, Spanish Fort." [Classified] The New Orleans Item 24 March 1912.

"Glasswasher, One Who Is Not a Glass Breaker." [Classified] The New Orleans Item 4 May 1912.

Image:  Unidentified photographer. Leonhard's Casino, Spanish Fort, New Orleans, LA. Circa 1912. Richard Koch Papers and Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Lost New Orleans

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently completed the processing of its Toledano and Reusch Office Records. This collection documents the historic Pickwick building, located at the corner of Carondelet and Canal Streets, 1882-1894. Originally owned by the Heine brothers in Paris, the structure was acquired by Bob Rivers for use as a hotel in 1894. New Orleans architects Toledano and Reusch modernized the fire-gutted building as the Hotel Pickwick.

The structure is visible at center left in the photograph above. It was demolished in the spring of 1948 to make room for the Gus Mayer building, today a CVS.

Image above: Unidentified photographer. Canal Street [Detail]. 25 November 1929. Visual Materials Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Mid-Century Mardi Gras

As we enter Mardi Gras season and as a reminder to history buffs who may not be aware of the Southeastern Architectural Archive's growing number of digital collections, the Cole Coleman Louisiana Photographs includes a large number of historic parade images such as the one reproduced above.

A commercial photographer, Coleman specialized in local subjects developed in series. The collection includes straight photographs and corresponding negatives of visiting celebrities, jazz musicians, notable structures, festival culture, restaurants, wildlife and foreign trade operations.

In 2014, the Tulane University Digital Library digitized over 500 Coleman photographs housed in the Southeastern Architectural Archive. View the Mardi Gras images here.



Image above:  Howard "Cole" Coleman, Mardi Gras on Canal Street. Undated photograph. Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

1948 Cornice Collapse

On April 28, 1948 at 12:20 a.m., a series of old brick and concrete cornices attached to shops located at 526-28-30-32 Royal Street collapsed due to heavy traffic vibrations. The cornices were approximately three feet high, one foot deep, and extended some 60 feet from side to side. When they crumbled, they destroyed the iron balconies and some of the plate glass windows below them. Vieux Carre Commission architect-inspector, Walter Cook Keenan, appeared on the scene to take photographs and spoke to Times-Picayune reporters:

'The mortar used in constructing the buildings was of very poor quality and some of the buildings 200 years old have mortar in them which has never dried. You can pick it out with a lead pencil.'(1)

Eye witnesses reported a noise that sounded like an "explosion" prior to the collapse. No injuries were reported.

This week 808-810  Royal Street experienced a more catastrophic collapse and is currently being demolished (above).

(1)"Collapse of Cornices Laid to Vibration, Houses' Age." The Times-Picayune 29 April 1948.

Images above:  Walter Cook Keenan, photographer. 524-530 Royal Street.  30 April 1948.  Walter Cook Keenan New Orleans Architecture Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries; K. Rylance, photographer. 808-810 Royal Street. 26 October 2014.

NEW! Morgan Whitney Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of its Morgan Whitney Louisiana Architecture Photographs. The collection consists of platinum prints created circa 1890-1910.

Morgan Whitney (1869-1913) was a member of the prominent New Orleans banking family, who studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and became an accomplished photographer, still-life painter and musician. An early automobile touring enthusiast, Whitney was able to access the state’s rustic roads to photograph plantations in Ascension, Jefferson, Landry, Natchitoches, Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Martin Parishes. He tended to utilize the platinum print process, which was very popular at the turn of the century. His photographic works extensively documented Louisiana’s antebellum buildings and monuments, and some were later incorporated into the Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress) and Tulane University School of Architecture’s Vieux Carré Survey.

Image above: Morgan Whitney, photographer. St. Augustine Roman Catholic Church, 1210 Governor Nicholls Street, New Orleans. Circa 1910. Platinum print. Interior, detail.

Tulane & Bellocq

We have posted a number of entries about New Orleans photographer E.J. Bellocq (1873-1949) because his business largely centered on architectural and industrial photography. It's worth mentioning that he also supplied photographs to the Tulane University of Louisiana and Newcomb College. For example, his images appeared in the institutional yearbook, Jambalaya.

Tulane's  University Archives recently digitized the yearbooks, which are available via the Tulane University Digital Library (TUDL) and the Internet Archive.

Images above: E.J. Bellocq, photographer. "Faculty of Newcomb College;" "Law Department" Jambalaya. New Orleans: The Tulane University of Louisiana, 1902.

NEW! Shell Oil Company Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) recently finalized the processing of the Shell Oil Company Collection of Louisiana Plantation Photographs.

The collection consists of professional photographs commissioned by the Shell Oil Company in the late 1960s. They correlate to plantation structures located along the Mississippi River in southeastern Louisiana, which are identified on corresponding maps (earliest map reproduced above).

Read more here.

Image above: Shell Oil Company. Louisiana Plantations Map. Circa 1969. Shell Oil Company/Louisiana Plantation Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Frank Lotz Miller

We have mentioned the Crescent City's leading mid-century architectural photographer Frank Lotz Miller (1923-1993) in earlier posts, yet we always come across more of his wonderful images. As part of a series recording extant structures associated with a Central Business District parking garage complex designed by Curtis & Davis, Miller captured activities -- his own and the proprietor's -- at Frederick Tailors (158 South Rampart Street) on 23 December 1952.

Image above: Frank Lotz Miller, photographer. Frederick Tailors. 23 December 1952. Curtis and Davis Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

NEW! Richard Koch Finding Aid

The Southeastern Architectural Archive recently finalized the processing of the Richard Koch Papers and Photographs. The collection consists of photographs, negatives, papers and architectural drawings associated with the personal life and preservation work of New Orleans architect Richard Koch (1889-1971). Papers date from the 1920s-1950s and relate to Koch’s support of various preservation advocacy organizations, including the Vieux Carré Association, the Vieux Carré Commission, the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) and the American Institute of Architects’ Historic Preservation Committee. A majority relate to Koch’s historical reports concerning municipal squares comprising the Vieux Carré. Although the majority of correspondence relate to historic preservation efforts, some letters are personal in nature, and Koch communicated with a wide array of artists, property owners and architects, as well as with extended family in Argentina and Germany. Smaller-scaled sketches representing architectural details are included among Koch’s papers.

Image above: Richard Koch, photographer. Chartres Street [619 Congress Street]. Contact prints mounted to index cards. Richard Koch Papers and Photographs, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Mid-Century Louisiana

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) and the Tulane Digital Library (TUDL) recently completed an exciting digitization project.

The new digital collection consists of gelatin silver prints made by New Orleans photographer Howard 'Cole' Coleman (1883-1969) and donated to Tulane University in memory of his wife, Thelma Hecht Coleman.

As a commercial photographer, Coleman specialized in local subjects developed in series. The collection includes photographs and corresponding negatives of visiting celebrities, jazz musicians, notable structures, festival culture, restaurants, wildlife and foreign trade operations. Coleman took an interest in documenting the same subjects over the course of time, photographing buildings before and after renovations or other significant changes. He used the same approach with his commercial Mardi Gras images, situating his camera in two locations along major parade routes to systematically photograph passing float processions. Gallier Hall (545 St. Charles Street) and the Keller-Zander building (814 Canal Street) typically form the backdrop to his these images.

Learn more about/see the collection......

URL:  http://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/collection/id/106

Image above: Howard C. Coleman. 238-240 Royal Street. Betty Picone’s Drinkatorium. Building also known as Conway’s Corner. Circa 1955-1958. Structure demolished 1963. Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Curt Teich Postcard Archives

The Curt Teich Postcard Archives is available through the Illinois Digital Archives portal. Curt Teich (1877-1974) was a German immigrant printer who settled in Chicago, Illinois and became the world's largest producer of advertising postcards, including his Curteich-Art Colortone prints.

The digital collection includes nearly 2000 postcard images of southeastern U.S. States, with some 200 images of greater metropolitan New Orleans.

We came across this 1940's postcard depicting New Orleans architect Rathbone DeBuys' Howard Flint Ink Company building, which was erected in 1932 by the Hortman-Salmen Company at 1041 S. Jefferson Davis Parkway. The structure is still standing, operating as World Ship Supply Incorporated.

Image above:  [Rathbone DeBuys, architect]. Factory of the Howard Flint Ink Company. Chicago: C.T. Art Colortone, 1940s. Courtesy Curt Teich Postcard Archives via the Illinois Digital Archives.

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952)

The Library of Congress is celebrating the 150th birthday of Frances Benjamin Johnston (shown above), born 15 January 1864. Her archive resides at LoC, and the Prints and Photographs Division has digitized a portion of her work. To view the digital gallery, click here.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive's new exhibit, "Bellocq and Beyond" features Johnston's undated photograph of 1133-1135 Chartres Street's courtyard. The exhibit will be up through 20 February 2014 in the SEAA's Reading Room, 300 Joseph Merrick Jones Hall on Tulane University's Uptown campus.

Image above:  Frances Benjamin Johnston, full-length self-portrait dressed as a man with false moustache, posed with bicycle. Circa 1880-1900. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. LC-DIG-ppmsc-04884 (digital file from original) LC-USZ62-83111.

In New Orleans, The Owl: The Organ of the Young Men's Hebrew Association, featured a cartoon deriding female cyclists:

Image above: "What We Are Coming To." The Owl: The Organ of the Young Men's Hebrew Association. 1890s. Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Building Effigies

In  May 1957, the City of New Orleans celebrated a 22-block parade in honor of Mayor deLesseps S. Morrison's building initiatives. At the time of the event, City Hall and the Saratoga building had been completed, the Public Library was under construction, and the old Knights of Pythias temple was being re-sheathed with modernist colored panels.

The parade initiated at Municipal Auditorium and included more than 2000 civic and international participants. Floats adorned with building effigies featured prominently: the Mississippi River Bridge; the Union Passenger Terminal building; City Hall; and oil industry derricks were transported along the designated route through the former Storyville. Some fifteen marching bands punctuated the progress floats. The event culminated with the mayor's dedication and opening of the new City Hall.

New Orleans architect Arthur Q. Davis (1920-2011) served on the City Hall dedication committee, along with preservation leaders Clay Shaw and General L. Kemper Williams.  Betty Finnin directed the creation of the parade floats.

Read more in: "History Making Day Monday." The Times-Picayune New Orleans States (5 May 1957): Section 7, p. 7.

Image above: Leon Trice, photographer for Public Relations Office City Hall, New Orleans. Bird’s Eye View photograph of “Parade of Progress” celebrating Mayor DeLesseps Morrison’s building initiatives, dedication of new City Hall. 6 May 1957. Visual Materials Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Bellocq & Beyond

The Southeastern Architectural Archive has opened a new exhibit  -- Bellocq and Beyond -- on the occasion of the recent conservation of Ernest J. Bellocq’s photograph of The Real Estate Exchange Building (1913). Tulane University preservation librarian Annie Peterson stewarded the conservation, which was undertaken at the Northeast Document Conservation Center (NEDCC). 

The exhibit features architectural photographs by Bellocq, C. Milo Williams, George Mugnier, John Teunisson, Morgan Whitney, W.C. Odiorne, Frances B. Johnston, Eugene Delcroix, Richard Koch, Clarence John Laughlin, Walter Cook Keenan, Frank Lotz Miller & Betsy Swanson. 

It will be up through 20 February 2014 in the SEAA Reading Room, Joseph Merrick Jones Hall 300, Tulane University's Uptown Campus. Read Ryan Rivet's Tulane New Wave feature on the exhibit here.

Images above:  

Ernest J. Bellocq, Dr.  Invoice to Architect Martin Shepard. 1913.

Ernest J. Bellocq, photographer.  The Real Estate Exchange Building, 311 Baronne Street, New Orleans, Louisiana. 1913. [Detail]

Both from the Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Le Beau Plantation

Wisconsin-born photographer Howard “Cole” Coleman (1883-1969) took this image of Le Beau plantation between 1956 and 1962. Every August during those years, he and his wife Thelma consulted Louisiana chambers of commerce and traveled the region's highways and country roads to visit and photograph historic landmarks. They advertised and sold the resulting silver gelatin prints locally. In 1963, they donated a series of 16 x 20” photographic enlargements to the Louisiana Landmarks Society that were exhibited at Gallier Hall under the title “The Thelma Hecht Coleman Collection.” According to an advertisement he placed in The Times-Picayune, Coleman considered his Louisiana-born wife the inspiration for his capture of Louisiana architectural subjects. Upon her death, he sold his copy prints and ultimately donated his source photographs and negatives to Tulane University Libraries.

Learn more about the Southeastern Architectural Archive's Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection here.

Tulane University's Digital Library is in the process of digitizing the entire collection.

Image above: Howard Coleman, photographer. Le Beau Plantation House, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Courtesy Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

Back of Town 1927

In 1927, photographer Joseph Schnetzer took a series of project photographs documenting construction of Rathbone DeBuy's Mack Truck factory located near the intersection of Jefferson Davis Parkway and Calliope Street. Pile drivers working for contractor J.E. Hemenway can be seen working on the site, some posing for Schnetzer. Numerous small bungalow residences are visible in the distance.

Image above: Joseph Schnetzer, photographer. The Mack Truck Company. C.N. 1000. Architect Rathbone DeBuys. 11 April 1927. Project photograph. Rathbone DeBuys Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.