The Historic New Orleans Collection

The Historic New Orleans Collection Founded in 1966 through the estates of General L. Kemper Williams and Mrs.
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A free museum, research center, and publisher located in the heart of the French Quarter and dedicated to preserving and sharing the history and culture of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the surrounding region. The Historic New Orleans Collection (THNOC) is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to preserving the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South. Leila Mo

ore Williams, THNOC has helped local residents and visiting tourists better understand the multicultural history of the region through thought-provoking exhibitions; original books, periodicals, and articles; and its public research center. In addition, it offers a robust programming schedule and an extensive array of educational resources for teachers and students of all levels. THNOC operates three campuses in the heart of the French Quarter at 520 Royal Street, 533 Royal Street, and 410 Chartres Street. In observance of our founders' request to make historical resources available to all, admission is free. As a publisher, THNOC produces award-winning original books exploring the history, art, music, culture, and decorative arts of the region. Our magazine, the Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly, surveys the region's history as it relates to THNOC's projects and programs.

After an action-packed weekend on the riverfront, the tall ships are sailing out of New Orleans today to embark on a mul...
06/01/2026

After an action-packed weekend on the riverfront, the tall ships are sailing out of New Orleans today to embark on a multi-city tour along the East Coast in celebration of America’s 250th birthday. ⛵

If you missed the ships or want to take a deeper dive through naval history, the celebrations continue at HNOC’s “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition.” The experience, designed by French technology firm History, brings the history of America’s fight for independence alive with immersive 3-D reconstructions. Free timed-entry tickets are required.

🎟️ Plan your visit to the exhibition: https://ow.ly/QNAe50Z6mOV

📷 1-7: Photos by Amber Johnson, HNOC
📷 8-10: Reproductions in “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,” courtesy of Histovery

68 years ago, on May 31, 1958, New Orleans desegregated its streetcar system. Race screens that had long enforced segreg...
05/31/2026

68 years ago, on May 31, 1958, New Orleans desegregated its streetcar system. Race screens that had long enforced segregation on the city’s public transportation were removed following a court order.

During the Jim Crow era, race screens labeled “For Colored Patrons Only” were placed on streetcar seats to segregate Black passengers, shifting back and forth depending on the number of riders. These screens inspired protest and resistance, as commuters moved screens farther up or tossed them out of the window to push back against discriminatory seating practices.

Visitors can explore this history of civil rights activism in “The Trail They Blazed,” which features a streetcar bench and race screen as well as firsthand reflections of activist’s resistance and persistence. The exhibition is on view at HNOC for one more week and closes on Sunday, June 7.

Plan your visit: https://ow.ly/vqRX50Z5Pb9

📷: Dodie Smith-Simmons and Leona Tate share reflections on the Civil Rights Movement in “The Trail They Blazed.” Photos 1, 3–5 by Amber Johnson, 2 by Keely Merritt, HNOC.

“Everybody’s got this special place they come out of when you have your second line parade. Most of the time, we start a...
05/30/2026

“Everybody’s got this special place they come out of when you have your second line parade. Most of the time, we start and break up at Ms. Jackie and George’s, a barroom on North Claiborne and Dumaine. That Sunday, you will feel like a superstar,” said Darryl Press, founder of the Ole & Nu Style Fellas Social Aid & Pleasure Club.

“Our oldest son, Tyrone ‘Trouble’ Miller, who is the president today, is a schoolteacher. He is also the designer and clothes man for our club. I don’t know how he can sit there and cut things out with the little blade he uses with the little measurements, but he can make anything.”

📖 Read more from his interview with the Neighborhood Story Project for HNOC’s “Dancing In The Streets” club narratives: https://ow.ly/nxjp50Z5K7s

🎺 Don’t mis the Ole & Nu Style Fellas Second Line Parade tomorrow on ! See the routes and more information from WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans: https://ow.ly/Z2BO50Z5KbT

📷 1: Sue Press, Ole & Nu Style Fellas parade. 2017. Photo by and courtesy of Charles Muir Lovell
📷 2: Coming out the door, 2010. Photo by and courtesy of Leslie Parr
📷 3: Ole & Nu Style Fellas parade, 2017. Photo by and courtesy of Charles Muir Lovell
📷 4: Sue Press honoring her mother Emelda Franks. Photo by and courtesy of MJ Mastrogiovanni

HNOC’s members-only edition of our new event series, French Quarter Fridays, is next week!Join fellow friends of HNOC fo...
05/29/2026

HNOC’s members-only edition of our new event series, French Quarter Fridays, is next week!

Join fellow friends of HNOC for drinks, music, and merriment on June 5. Members can enjoy an open bar, complimentary refreshments, door prizes, and extended hours at The Shop at The Collection. Food and a specialty cocktail will be provided by Clesi's Seafood Restaurant & Catering and HNOC will additionally provide wine, beer, and soda. The evening will feature a courtyard performance by T Marie and Bayou Juju, as well as Dr. Paul Weber on HNOC’s restored Aeolian pipe organ.

If you’re not yet a member, join today to experience this event and other year-round membership perks: https://ow.ly/x93v50Z5Hys

French Quarter Fridays: Members Only
🗓️ Friday, June 5
⏰ 5:30–7 p.m.
📍 520 Royal Street
🎟️ Free admission, HNOC members only. Learn more and register: https://ow.ly/UeUj50Z5Hza

📷 1: “Family Night at Fred’s Pleasure Club” (detail), 1994, by Warrington Colescott. HNOC, 2019.0227.4
📷 2: Photo by Keely Merritt, HNOC

Masts, sails, and nautical flags soar over the riverfront this weekend as a flotilla of tall ships descends upon New Orl...
05/28/2026

Masts, sails, and nautical flags soar over the riverfront this weekend as a flotilla of tall ships descends upon New Orleans to celebrate America’s 250th birthday!

The Crescent City is the first port to welcome the fleet and nearly 3,000 sailors, marking the first stop of Sail250. Vessels from around the world—including Peru, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Sweden, the Netherlands, and the UK—will be open for free public tours through Monday before the ships depart for a multi-city tour along the East Coast this summer.

After visiting the vessels at the riverfront, cool off at HNOC and visit “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition,” which explores America’s fight for independence through immersive 3-D reconstructions. Free timed-entry tickets are required for the exhibition.

🎟️ Plan your visit to “American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition” at HNOC: https://ow.ly/Eppv50Z5mPZ

📷 Photos by Keely Merritt, HNOC

05/27/2026

HNOC’s exhibition “The Trail They Blazed” closes next weekend! Ahead of the exhibition’s closing on June 7, HNOC’s Eric Seiferth joined WVUE FOX 8 to discuss Dryades Street Boycott of 1960, a key moment of the Civil Rights Movement in New Orleans, highlighted in the exhibition.

Watch the full video: https://ow.ly/LZUZ50Z4Xgb

Plan your visit: https://ow.ly/MB3T50Z4Xga

05/26/2026

In neighborhoods throughout New Orleans, rows of slender, one-room-wide shotgun houses stand as a testament to the city’s history.

In a segment with WVUE FOX 8, HNOC’s Lydia Blackmore explores the history, features, and legacy of this distinctive New Orleans building type.

🏠 Watch the full video: https://ow.ly/t6bn50Z4rTs

Of the 16 million Americans who volunteered for or were drafted into the U.S. military during World War II, nearly 500,0...
05/25/2026

Of the 16 million Americans who volunteered for or were drafted into the U.S. military during World War II, nearly 500,000 did not live to see the celebrations, parades, and reunions that followed. This immense collective sacrifice is honored around the country on Memorial Day, and HNOC is one of many institutions that keeps the memory of these brave souls alive by preserving, safeguarding, and providing access to their papers and personal effects.

Francis Ildefonso Cervantes, born in New Orleans in 1922 to Mexican immigrants, flew dozens of clandestine, high-risk missions over Nazi-occupied Europe during his service. More than 100 of his letters, cards, and telegrams document his hopes and dreams for a future he would never see and trace his wartime journey to its end. Many of the items now held in HNOC’s Francis Cervantes Collection were donated by his son, Frank D. Cervantes—born in 1945, while his father was serving overseas—who never had the chance to meet him.

📖 On our First Draft blog, HNOC’s Collin Makamson shares some of Cervantes’s wartime letters: https://ow.ly/mG3k50Z3oFn

📷 1: Cervantes (front row, second from left) poses with his Maxwell crewmates, 1944. HNOC, MSS 653
📷 2: Francis I. Cervantes in his Army uniform, 1942. HNOC, MSS 653
📷 3: Letter from Cervantes to his mother, dated January 11, 1945. HNOC, MSS 653
📷 4: Paula and Francis Cervantes in a photo taken the day before he shipped out, 1944. HNOC, MSS 653
📷 5: Cervantes’s Purple Heart. HNOC, gift of Dr. Frank D. Cervantes, 2013.0056.13
📷 6: American flag in front of Godchaux’s department store during World War II. HNOC, 1974.25.21.32

05/23/2026

“There was an original Money Wasters group from the Sixth Ward, which was founded in 1920. That group went on forever and ever. Some of the members in that club included Mr. Louis Charbonnet, his brother, and Dorothy Mae Taylor, who was a city councilwoman. At some point, the club unraveled. In April of 1976, the Money Wasters was rejuvenated with another group of people,” said Jarrett Johnson.

📖 Read the interview with the Neighborhood Story Project for HNOC’s “Dancing In The Streets” club narratives: https://ow.ly/rXpc50Z3nLQ

🎺 Don’t miss the Money Wasters Second Line Parade tomorrow on ! See route details and more information from WWOZ 90.7 FM New Orleans: https://ow.ly/rXpc50Z3nLQ

🎥: Second line parade with Money Wasters Social Aid and Pleasure Club and Jolly Bunch Social and Pleasure Club, by Jules L. Cahn. Jules Cahn Collection at HNOC, 2000.78.4.444
🎵: Doc Paulin, audio recording by Jules L. Cahn. Jules Cahn Collection at HNOC, 2000.78.6.74

Crawfish-Man burst out of a Bayou Teche moss pile to lay down the claw for the first time in 1979, pre-dating X-Men’s Ga...
05/22/2026

Crawfish-Man burst out of a Bayou Teche moss pile to lay down the claw for the first time in 1979, pre-dating X-Men’s Gambit by 11 years as the world’s original Cajun superhero. The most famous creation of Loreauville, Louisiana, native Tim Edler, Crawfish-Man was just one character in the author’s surreal, interconnected Cajun fantasy universe. In Edler’s world, hooking a catfish might get you sentenced to death in the electric eel chair by an underwater jury of choupiques—or a vengeful crawfish king may try to boil and eat you for a change.

From 1977 to 1985, Edler built a mail-order, small-press empire out of Baton Rouge called Little Cajun Books, selling over 100,000 copies of his children’s series, Tales from the Atchafalaya. Over a 12-book run, Edler’s stories spawned a fan club, thrilling young subscribers with Crawfish-Man T-shirts, posters, and cassette tapes. Kids who signed the “Crawfish-Man Drug Oath” could redeem it for a free Crawfish-Man “Think For Yourself” sticker.

His books proudly featured phonetically spelled Cajun French words and sayings, emerging from the grassroots Cajun cultural revival movement of the 1960s and ’70s after decades of state-sponsored suppression had banned the language from classrooms. Edler wrote each of his dozen swamp sagas and illustrated half of them himself as well, drawing in a self-taught style that became an endearing signature of the series.

🦞 Celebrate crawfish season with our new Collection Highlight post featuring summaries and excerpts from each of Edler’s out-of-print Little Cajun Books: https://ow.ly/9bR250Z3i8V

📷 1: “Crawfish-Man Rescues Ron Guidry,” 1980, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 81-922-RL
📷 2-3: “The Adventures of Crawfish-Man,” 1979, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 81-928-RL
📷 4: “T-boy in Mossland,” 1978, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 81-925-RL
📷 5-6: “Dark Gator: Villain of the Atchafalaya,” 1980, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 81-921-RL
📷 7: “Dark Gator: Villain of the Atchafalaya,” 1980, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 81-921-RL
📷 8-9: “T-boy and the Trial for Life,” 1978, by Tim Edler, illustrations by Dovie Peace. HNOC, 81-924-RL
📷 10: “Crawfish-Man’s 50 Ways to Keep Your Kids from Using Drugs,” 1982, by Tim Edler. HNOC, 83-322-RL

Address

520 Royal Street
New Orleans, LA
70130

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Saturday 9:30am - 4:30pm
Sunday 10:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+1 504-523-4662

Website

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