New Orleanians usually prefer our Sno-balls doused in flavors like Tiger’s Blood or Blue Raspberry, but one week into Tulane’s Spring semester, we got a taste of a different variety of snowball. A collective shock fell over the city as we witnessed a historic level of snow in mid-January, the likes of which had not been seen in 130 years. With public transit, schools, and businesses all over the city closed for several days, New Orleanians either retreated to the warmth of their homes or ventured out into the quiet streets to meet the falling snow with glee. As for the staff of Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC), our reading room was temporarily closed, providing a brief interlude for us to make progress on much of our “behind the scenes” work in anticipation of a busy spring.  

The TUSC Spring 2025 calendar is packed with events, all designed with the hope that you will encounter materials that generate new conversations, support your research pursuits, or inspire new understandings of the past and present. Our spring exhibition is one we’ve been planning with excitement, and we will be pleased if you can join us on Thursday, March 13 for the opening reception. My Favorite Things: Selections by Tulane University Special Collections Staff is our chance to share with you the items that thrill, amuse, enchant, and awaken us. We know you’ll find something among the items on display that you find equally captivating.

If you can’t visit us in person, there are many other ways to engage with our services and our collections. TUSC archivists and librarians are here to answer your questions and support and enhance your research and teaching. We are also here to learn from you and your experiences. We welcome knowledge seekers of all kinds to reach out to find out more about our staff, collections, and services. You can make an appointment via our website at https://library.tulane.edu/tusc, email us at specialcollections@tulane.edu, and follow us at facebook.com/ TUSpecialCollections and Instagram @tuspeccoll. 

Jillian Cuellar 

Director, Tulane University Special Collections 

You are cordially invited to the opening reception for Special Collections’ new exhibit, “My Favorite Things,” Thursday, March 13, 5:00-7:00 PM, Special Collections Gallery, Jones Hall 2nd Floor, 6801 Freret. 

“What is your favorite item in the collection?” It’s a question every archivist, curator, and librarian has heard countless times—from colleagues, researchers, and visitors alike. For many of us, selecting just one object feels impossible. With thousands of documents, artifacts, and books under our care, each holding its own unique historical significance, how do we choose? 

For the exhibition My Favorite Things, we invited Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) staff to embrace this challenge. Each participant selected objects that hold personal significance—items that captivate us, that we return to time and again, whether for their historical importance, the stories they tell, or the sheer joy they inspire. 

Featuring materials from TUSC’s archival, printed, and audiovisual collections, this exhibition reflects our individual and collective passions. Through these selections, we hope to spark curiosity, nostalgia, and a deeper connection to the past. 

We invite you to explore these treasured pieces and discover the stories behind our favorite things. 

For more information contact: 

Kevin Williams, Coordinator for Exhibits & Outreach 
Tulane University Special Collections 
(504) 247-1836 
kevinw@tulane.edu 

To acquire new archival collections, TUSC relies on donors who share our concern for preserving our past. Acquiring a new collection, however, is just the beginning of a long and detailed process archivists must undertake before they can release a new archival collection to researchers. 

That process includes surveying the collection’s contents and condition, arranging it into an understandable order, conserving selected items, and helping preserve the collection by rehousing it into archival-quality containers and placing it in secure, archival-quality storage. Finally, archivists create an online searchable description and inventory so researchers from around the world can easily find, understand, and request the collection. 

In 2024, that process led to the addition of more than 150 linear feet of new TUSC collections requiring more than 580 hours of archival work. Special highlights include the Austin M. Sonnier Jr. collection, the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin menus, the Offbeat, Inc., records, the Papers of Journalist Scott Jordan, and the Walmsley Family Carnival papers.

Austin M. Sonnier Jr.  (1939-2019) was a Lafayette, Louisiana-based ethnomusicologist, musician, and author whose research and work linked southwestern Louisiana and New Orleans music traditions. His papers include manuscript drafts, play scripts, correspondence, photographs, and research notes. 

The Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin was founded in Burgundy in 1934 to promote the culture, and especially the food and wine, of that region. American branches were founded in New York and New Orleans in 1940. The collection includes menus from the American branches and induction ceremony documents for the New Orleans chapter. 

Journalist Scott Jordan covered Louisiana music, arts, and culture for nearly three decades. His papers contain interviews with musicians in blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, and roots rock in addition to New Orleans personalities, public figures, and celebrities. 

The OffBeat, Inc. Records includes promotional materials, festival planning details, correspondence, photographs, and research notes pertaining to the publication of OffBeat Magazine and the operation of OffBeat, Inc., including Jan Ramsey's papers related to the music industry in New Orleans as both publisher and president of OffBeat Magazine. 

Sylvester Pierce Walmsley (December 7, 1858, Dubuque, Iowa - July 22, 1930, Los Angeles, California), served as Rex, King of Carnival, in 1890, and was the Captain of the Mystic Krewe of Comus for twenty-five years. The Walmsley Family Carnival papers document his contributions to Carnival as well as those of his son, Hughes Philip Walmsley Sr. (1902 – 1973), who was Comus captain in the 1960s and Rex in 1969. Of very special importance is a complete set of presentation float designs for the 1908 Comus parade. 

Since being processed and opened for public access in 2023, the Louis Prima papers (HJA-041) have not only been used by individual researchers but have been featured in several community and classroom collaborations.  

Last year, Hogan Archive curator Melissa A. Weber worked with Tulane Bands director Barry Spanier to incorporate classroom instruction about archival research into Band Camp. Over 100 students from the Tulane Bands program participated in TUSC workshops to learn about archives, utilizing the Prima papers. Later in the semester, the student musicians and dancers featured Prima songs during their halftime performances at Green Wave football games and will do so during parades throughout the Mardi Gras 2025 season.  

Additionally, select Prima collection materials were on view at the Italian American Music of Los Angeles for the exhibition Louis Prima: Rediscovering a Musical Icon, which ran from November 4, 2023, through October 13, 2024. Upcoming exhibitions where the Prima papers will be displayed include Music America: Iconic Objects from America’s Music History, currently on view through April 13; Louis Prima: The Wildest at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City, currently on view through May 4; and at a forthcoming exhibition at the GRAMMY Museum Mississippi, curated by the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music.

The first events of the Prima Memorial Series at TUSC were presented last year and sponsored by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation, which donated the Prima papers to TUSC. The series’ inaugural event, September 19, 2024, featured Dr. Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. The composer, author, Guggenheim Fellow, and Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Pennsylvania gave a lecture, titled “What I Did with Musicology and What It Gave Me Back.” On October 22, 2024, the series presented a screening of the documentary Louis Prima: The Wildest, including a Q&A talkback with film producers Joe Lauro and Don McGlynn, moderated by Anthony J. Sylvester of the Prima Foundation. All series events are open to the public and designed to present discourse and discussion around American popular music, including its origins in American jazz. 

TUSC welcomes a wide range of collaborations that incorporate its archival collections. Faculty and educators can learn more about teaching with special collections. Institutions and individuals who are interested in using collection materials for exhibitions, publications, broadcasting, and more can review TUSC policies about copyright, permissions, and licensing. To keep updated on events, visit the Exhibitions and Public Programming page of the TUSC website.

In 2024, Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) served researchers from 15 countries and more than 30 US states. However, an unfortunate myth about archives and special collections is that they primarily serve historians. That is far from the truth. 

Last year TUSC held instruction sessions for almost 700 students from more than twenty academic disciplines, including Architecture, Biology, Classics, Data Science, English, and Music, making TUSC central to Tulane University’s wider educational mission. Whether you are researching political science, Portuguese, or public health, TUSC may have resources for you. 

Despite the common misconception that archives and special collections serve primarily graduate students, post-docs, and faculty, last year more than 20% of TUSC’s researchers were undergraduates. They are central to TUSC’s mission. Undergraduates benefit tremendously from hands-on work with original archival documents and rare books and working with special collections should be an essential part of the undergraduate experience. Holding in their hands an original Thomas Jefferson letter, an original Huey P. Long letter, or a 15th-century illuminated Book of Hours is something students will remember for the rest of their lives

We hope to introduce more undergraduate students to TUSC with special outreach projects for the Tulane University undergraduate community. Currently, TUSC has a mini-exhibit for students on the first floor of Jones Hall. “Animals, Fish, Amphibians, and Insects” highlights TUSC holdings featuring nature and the environmental sciences. The items were selected by TUSC student assistant Lauren Duncan. Of special note are images of “Joshua, the girl otter.” 

On Thursday, February 13, TUSC hosted the pop-up mini-exhibit “From TUSC with Love.” It featured Valentine’s Day-themed items from TUSC’s collections, antique Valentine’s Day cards, and Valentine’s Day swag, including custom-made Valentine’s Day cards to give to a loved one. 

In November, rare books curator Agnieszka Czeblakow helped students in Professor Elio Brancaforte’s class, “Grimm Reckonings: Development of the German Fairy Tale,” identify and select materials from rare books for the exhibit “Canvases of Castles and Creatures.” The exhibit showcases illustrations from famous fairy tales such as The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Hansel and Gretel, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, and more. 

The physical exhibit, created with the assistance of Lisa Hooper, Head of Media Services, is available on the sixth floor of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library through the Spring. Sean Knowlton created the online version, making this a collaborative project among the Department of German and Slavic Languages, Special Collections, and the library’s Media Services and Digital Scholarship departments. 

For Halloween 2024, TUSC organized “Archives After Dark,” a collaboration with our colleagues in the library’s Scholarly Engagement department. The heavily attended event took place in the evening and highlighted some of our spookier collections, including selections from the Anne Rice papers, New Orleans cemetery tomb models, and volumes from TUSC’s Edward Gorey rare book collection. 

Late into the night, students had their tarot read by the mysterious Madame Jen, took selfies in a haunted mirror from Storyville, and enjoyed food, drink, and special giveaways. The event was organized by TUSC’s Faye Daigle, Lori Schexnayder, and Kevin Williams.

On February 17, TUSC collaborated with Howard-Tilton Memorial Library (H-TML) Media Services for a celebration of Mardi Gras Indian music. Presented as part of Media Services’ Intentional Listening Series, the event not only provided a space for guests to listen to audio recordings free from interruption but also displayed archival materials from TUSC collections that represented Black Masking Indian culture of New Orleans.

Led by Lisa Hooper, Head of Media Services, and Melissa A. Weber, curator of the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, the event also featured Dr. Matt Sakakeeny, Associate Professor in the Newcomb Department of Music, and special guest Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians.

Featured TUSC materials included digitized audio of the Wild Magnolias captured locally in 1973 by
Mahalia Jackson biographer Laurraine Goreau; an LP recording and promotional poster for The Wild Magnolias in 1974; a transcript of a 1974 interview with the Wild Magnolias and journalist Robert Palmer; and photographs of Black Masking Indians in 1966 and the early 2000s.

If you missed the event, you can access the audio recordings and archival materials that guests listened to and viewed by using the Guide to Materials.

Tulane University Special Collections preserves one of only three known exemplars of Nicolas De Fer's landmark 1715 map, “La riviere de Missisipi [sic] et ses environs, dans l’Amerique Septentrionale (Map of the Mississippi River Valley and the French Regions in the Interior of North America).” It is one of the earliest maps to incorporate the reports of Jesuit missionaries and explorers active in the early 18th Century. It is also the first map to provide a graphic depiction of the vast and rich commercial potential of French Louisiana, making it perhaps the most important and influential printed regional map of the period.  

Because De Fer’s map incorporated the reports of French explorers and missionaries in America in the late 17th and early 18th centuries (including Hennepin, de La Salle, Tonti, Justel, des Hayes, Jolliet, and le Maire), it was of great contemporary importance, delineating many of the Spanish settlements which were just then appearing in the region. The map is also notable for its early depiction of the Carolina Trading Path from Charleston to the Mobile and Mississippi Rivers. 

It includes markings for mountains and other topography. Larger or more important towns and cities are marked with small buildings in black ink, painted red, and also have a small dot of gold leaf. There is a red and green compass rose with a blue fleur du lis above it in the “Golfe de Mexique” (the name “Gulf of Mexico” precedes the United States by more than 200 years, with it first appearing on a map in 1550. French Jesuits used “Golfe de Mexique” as early as 1672). 

The conservator’s inspection determined that the map was in good condition. There were minor losses at the corners and the silk backing was starting to fray slightly at the edges. The conservator therefore chose a conservative approach involving cleaning the map with a chemical sponge, a soft brush, and grated erasers. The conservator also removed any hanging silk threads from the backing to prevent further damage and infilled any paper losses with paper of a similar thickness toned to match. 

You can see the result of the conservation work here in a version that you can greatly enlarge to view small details: 

La riviere de Missisipi [sic], et ses environs, dans l'Amerique Septentrionale 

Title: La riviere de Missisipi [sic] et ses environs, dans l’Amerique Septentrionale 
Creator: Fer, Nicolas de, 1646-1720 
Date of Item’s Creation: 1715 
Dimensions: 26 ½” x 19 3/8” 
Material: laid paper, textile backing 
Media: various manuscript inks and paints, gold leaf 

In addition to supporting and promoting Tulane University’s mission, TUSC team members believe that our special knowledge and skills obligate us to contribute to the wider library and archival professions and to our community at large. Learn more about what we’ve been doing. 

Tulane University Special Collections welcomes the opportunity to mentor interns as another way to educate the wider student community about our work. Recently, we’ve been fortunate to welcome three interns, Evan Allgood, Ronan Axtell, and Anna Scott. 

Ronan Axtell is a senior at Tulane majoring in economics. He is helping with the reparative description of our collections as part of his class HIST 4570: Public History and Internships.  

Last Summer TUSC welcomed Evan Allgood, an MLIS student at the School of Information Sciences, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Evan processed the records of Offbeat Magazine and Offbeat, Inc. (HJA-094). 

Anna Scott also interned with us last summer. Anna is pursuing an MA in Public History at the University of New Orleans. She inventoried and described over 400 posters in the Hogan Archives poster and calendar collection (HJA-095). 

Congratulations to Jillian Cuellar, Director, Special Collections, on her election to a three-year term to the Society of American Archivists’ Council. Council is SAA’s governing body. The Society of American Archivists is the world’s largest archival organization with more than 6,000 members around the world. Jillian is also contributing the chapter “Collection Development Policies” to the upcoming revised edition of the book Selecting and Appraising Archives and Manuscripts (Society of American Archivists, 2025). 

Kure Croker, Processing Archivist, has been appointed to the Society of Southwest Archivists’ State Partnerships and Outreach Fund committee. It provides funding to help archivists present at non-archival meetings. 

Kure Croker, Erin Kinchen-Addicks, and Samatha Schafer, along with Bernadette Floresca from the Newcomb Archives, have published “Launching a Guide: Inclusive and Reparative Archival Description at Tulane University” in Descriptive Notes, the online publication of the Society of American Archivists Description Section. The article reviews the development and launch of A Guide to Inclusive and Reparative Description at Tulane University Libraries and Newcomb Archives and Vorhoff Collection. The guide was a collaborative project of TUSC and The Newcomb Archives. 

Congratulations to Erin Kinchen-Addicks, University Archives Library Associate, who met all requirements to become a Certified Archivist as of July 1, 2024. 

Leon Miller, Curator of the Louisiana Research Collection, serves on the Society of American Archivists’ Ernst Posner Award Committee, which recognizes an outstanding essay published during the preceding year in SAA’s journal, American Archivist. He spoke to the Genealogical Research Society of New Orleans on “The Role of Archives in Cultural Preservation” on October 14; the Ephemera Society of America during their annual meeting in New Orleans on “Converting Vertical Files to an Ephemera Collection” on November 6; and the Ruth McEnery Stuart Clan (a New Orleans literary society) on “’May You Live in Interesting Times:’ The Role of Archives in Democratic Societies” on February 5. Miller will speak on the same topic April 26 to the St. Tammany Genealogical Society (Causeway Branch Library, 3457 US 190, Mandeville). The event is free, open to the public, and available in person or by Zoom. Seating is limited. For either option, please register at https://sttammanylibrary.org. 

Samantha Schafer, Collection Management Archivist, is serving on the Program Committee for the annual meeting of the Society of Southwest Archivists, which will be held this May in Lafayette. She is also on the Steering Committee of the Society of American Archivists’ Collection Management Section. 

Jennifer Waxman, Head of Collection Management, was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana to the Louisiana Historical Records Advisory Board in August. On September 13, she spoke at the first workshop in the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Climate Resiliency Action Series and will moderate the fifth workshop in March. Jennifer serves on the curriculum committee for this series of workshops, which is dedicated to learning, sharing, and developing active solutions to the climate crisis in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. In December she spoke at a UNESCO conference in Costa Rica about the New Orleans Preservation Coalition and Alliance for Response (NOPC-AfR), which is an emergency response network for cultural heritage communities. The goal of the conference was to bring together first responders and cultural heritage leaders in Central America to discuss ways to build alliances before disasters occur. Jennifer serves on the NOPC-AfR executive board. 

Melissa A. Weber, Curator, Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, participated in a panel, “Literary and Sonic Cultures in Black New Orleans,” at the Modern Language Association Convention on January 11. Last year, she spoke on the “Curating Music in Museums and Special Collections” panel at the Tennessee State Museum for AmericanaFest, on September 20. At the National Conference of African American Librarians, held in New Orleans last July, she served as a panelist on a roundtable titled “’There's Some Good Brothers and Sisters in New Orleans’: Utilizing Hidden Strengths in Library Work.” During the grand reopening weekend of the redeveloped Dew Drop Inn in New Orleans on March 2, 2024, she spoke about TUSC’s collaboration with the venue during its Frank’s Barbershop Unveiling event, which transformed the original barbershop space into a gallery featuring photographs and oral history recordings from the Hogan Archive. 

Tax season is a good time to consider making Tulane University Special Collections part of your annual giving plans. TUSC depends on donations to fund special projects. For example, we were able to digitize and make available online more than 6,000 original Carnival float and costume designs, as well as the John Kennedy Toole papers, due to generous funding from donors.

Donations of any amount help us make our resources more accessible to you and our community.

To learn how you can help, please contact Jillian Cuellar, Director, Special Collections, specialcollections@tulane.edu. 

John Geiser III and John Kennedy Toole off to their first day of school, 1943. Geiser and Toole were lifelong friends and Geiser created the Thelma Toole fund, named after John’s mother, which allowed TUSC to put John Kennedy Toole’s papers online.

Tulane University, Uptown Campus
Jones Hall, Room 208A
6801 Freret Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118
504-865-5685