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.

Last Week: Architectural Photography on Display

Bellocq and beyond

By Ryan Rivet
rrivet@tulane.edu

A photograph of The Real Estate Exchange building taken and printed by famed New Orleans photographer Ernest J. Bellocq in 1913 is currently on display as part of an exhibit at the Southeastern Architectural Archive in Jones Hall on the Tulane University uptown campus. The exhibit affords photography aficionados an opportunity to see work that may not be typically associated with the early 20th century artist.  

Bellocq is typically remembered for photographs he made of the prostitutes of Storyville, the New Orleans legalized red light district, according to Keli Rylance, head of the Southeastern Architectural Archive.

“We’ve always known that he marketed himself as an architectural photographer,” Rylance says. “There are scattered examples of Bellocq’s photographs across our holdings and we recently discovered a photograph that isn’t stamped Bellocq, but the invoice included with it secured the attribution.”

The photograph and invoice on display were discovered within a collection related to New Orleans architect Martin Shepard. Both were in rough shape when they were found. 

“It had been water-damaged before it came to us,” Rylance says. “There was a sheet of correspondence that was soldered onto the photograph and the invoice was heavily stained and damaged.”

Annie Peterson, a preservation librarian at Tulane, procured the services of the Northeast Document Conservation Center to work on the photograph. When Rylance received it back, she thought it would be a great opportunity to highlight architectural photography in the archive’s collections. 

Rylance says this photo opens the door to the possibility that there are other, previously unidentified Bellocq photos out there. 

“It’s not stamped in any way as a Bellocq photo,” Rylance says. “There could be other photos of his in New Orleans repositories that aren’t identified, and this might provide people a means of accessing them on stylistic grounds.”

The exhibit in Room 300 of Jones Hall is open until Feb. 20 and in addition to the Bellocq photograph and invoice, there are images from 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 and Betsy Swanson. 

February 5, 2014 10:30 AM
Tulane New Wave

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.

New Orleans Architects & E.J. Bellocq II

A previous post mentioned New Orleans photographer Ernest J. Bellocq (1873-1949), who frequently worked for local architects to record their buildings and recreational activities. One such architect was Martin Shepard, for whom Bellocq photographed the Real Estate Exchange building (311 Baronne Street). Another was Thomas Sully, whose Allard Street and Calongne residences Bellocq documented.
The dapper young photographer appeared in the December 1896 issue of the Young Men's Hebrew Association publication, The Owl (image above).  As early as September 1892, he was a member of the New Orleans Camera Club and was noted for photographing bantamweight fighter Jack Skelly (1870-1953) preparing for his historic match with George Dixon (1870-1909) at the Olympic Club:

"[Skelly] looks the picture of health. His eyes reflect his feelings. They are bright, clear and quick. His skin is also perfect and his step at once firm and elastic. The aspirant for championship honors continued his training up to the eleventh hour. This morning, after enjoying a salt water bath, he was weighed and carried 117 pounds. He punched the ball for two hours, covered almost twenty miles, and then underwent the rubbing down process. While in that position Shelly [sic] was photographed by Mr. Ernest Bellocq, a prominent young member of the New Orleans Camera Club. This brought the bantam's training to a close. He will be brought to town to-morrow and will be permitted to attend the Myer-McAuliff fight."(1)

The September 6th Dixon-Skelly match marked the end of mixed-race fighting at the Olympic. My distant relative James J. Corbett (1866-1933) defeated John L. Sullivan (1858-1918) there on September 7th.


(1)"Champion John L. Sullivan Reaches New Orleans Yesterday And Shows Up in Fine Form." The Daily Picayune (5 September 1892): p. 4.

Images above:  Invoice. Ernest J. Bellocq, commercial photographer. 840 Conti Street. 1913. Martin Shepard Office Records, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

"Ernest J. Bellocq." The Owl, Organ of the Young Men's Hebrew Association  (December 1896). Louisiana Research Collection, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

New Orleans Architects & E.J. Bellocq

New Orleanian John Ernest Joseph Bellocq (1873-1949) is most renowned for his photographs of Storyville prostitutes, but he also worked for local architects to record their events and accomplishments. The journal Architectural Art and Its Allies is riddled with reproductions of Bellocq photographs, some with attributions and others not.

On 19 August 1908, the city's architects and contractors participated in an "Exchange Outing Day" on the Tchefuncta River across Lake Pontchartrain. They boarded the steamer G.H.A. Thomas, after assembling at Canal Street and the Half Way House (recently razed) to catch a train to the West End. E.J. Bellocq captured part of the journey, as Roy C. Moyston acknowledged in Architectural Art and Its Allies:

"After reaching the further neck of the canal, however, the steamer slowed down in order to attitudinize for the benefit of Photographer Belloc [sic], whose effort is here reproduced."

Image and quoted text from Moyston, Roy C. "Exchange Outing Day." Architectural Art and Its Allies 4:2 (August 1908): p. 3.