Carnival Collection at Tulane

February 7, 2014 by Charlie London

Louisiana Research Collection. Tulane University. Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Special Collections.

Proteus dreams the Vegetable Kingdom

Using the theme “A Dream of the Vegetable Kingdom,” the Krewe of Proteus created Carnival floats and costumes for its 1892 parade based on corn, watermelon, and even English peas. Intended as working drawings for float builders and costumiers, the designs from Tulane’s Louisiana Research Collection are now on display in the Special Collections gallery, Jones Hall Room 201.

“The hand-painted watercolor designs are by Carlotta Bonnecaze, the first woman and first creole to design floats for a carnival krewe,” says Lee Miller, head of the Lousiana Research Collection. Carnival historian Henri Schindler calls Bonnecaze’s work “astonishing” and argues that in this 1892 parade, she used subtle layers of color to achieve her most beautifully painted designs.

“A Dream of the Vegetable Kingdom” is a rare instance of the Louisiana Research Collection preserving both a complete set of eighteen float designs and a complete set of 101 costume designs. Unlike today, each costume depicted a unique character designed specifically for the person who wore it. Of that number, sixteen float designs and thirty-eight costume designs have been chosen for display.

In addition to being beautiful works of art in their own right, the designs are heavily used by researchers in a variety of fields, including present-day Carnival designers, float builders, business people, historians, sociologists, and litterateurs. The Louisiana Research Collection preserves one of the largest Carnival collections in the world, including roughly 5,600 original designs, all of which are available online through the Louisiana Digital Library. With all of the designs viewable online, the collection restricts access to the delicate originals for preservation purposes, so this is a rare opportunity to see the original works on paper.

The Special Collections Gallery, Jones Hall Room 201, is open Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Admission is free and open to the public. For information, please call 504-314-7833, or email [email protected].

The LaRC Carnival Collection

The 1892 Proteus designs are only a fraction of LaRC’s extensive Carnival collection. The Louisiana Research Collection is a research library and archives, not a museum, and so does not acquire materials such as costumes or other textiles; but for documents on paper, such as invitations, dance cards, and designs, LaRC may likely have the largest Carnival collection in the world, representing almost three hundred krewes.

A detailed guide to our Carnival collection is available here. If your krewe is not represented, please contact us.

Explore more than 5,600 Carnival designs online

LaRC’s Carnival collection is perhaps most famous for its original designs. LaRC’s float and costume designs are strongest for the krewes of Comus, Momus, and Proteus for the 1870s through the 1940s, and includes the famous 1873 “Missing Links” Comus costume designs, which used Darwin’s “Origin of Species” to satirize political leaders of the day.

Thanks to generous support from the Tulane University Office of the Provost, the Louisiana Research Collection has placed all 5,600 of its original Carnival designs online. You can browse the complete collection here.

Do you belong to a Carnival krewe?

If so, please make sure that your krewe is represented in the LaRC Carnival collection. We recommend that your krewe assign an officer to serve as liaison with LaRC. Your LaRC liaison would be responsible for keeping your documents up-to-date by collecting and delivering each year’s invitations, announcements, and other printed materials to LaRC.

LaRC can also act as your krewe’s archives by permanently preserving a complete set of your minutes and reports. That would ensure that your krewe’s records are safe, secure, and available for your use. This service is completely free. If you would like to learn more about making LaRC your krewe’s official archives, please contact us at [email protected].

Why?

LaRC preserves the Carnival collection for one reason: to make it available to researchers from around the world. Everything the Louisiana Research Collection preserves – from the papers of Lindy Boggs to the papers of Jefferson Davis – is available to all researchers on an equal basis.

There are many ways you can help, from letting us know about documents that need preservation to helping fund an internship for a student eager to work with original Louisiana documents. Find out more about how you can help preserve our past for our future.


For more information about Tulane University’s Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC), please visit our website.


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Louisiana Research Collection Room 202, Jones Hall, Tulane University,
New Orleans LA 70118
Phone: 504-865-5685 | Fax: 504-865-5761
[email protected]  |  [email protected]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: carnival, collection, history, mardi gras, New Orleans, tulane

The Mob is Looking for You

May 31, 2013 by Charlie London

trashmob

NOLA TRASH MOB | 11 a.m. | Sunday, June 9

The monument by the Jeff Davis Trail where it crosses Tulane Avenue was surveyed and it was peppered with trash. This area has become the main battleground, and this Sunday, June 9 we’ll take it back. We can then mobilize toward where litter is dense, perhaps even over I-10 across the Jeff Davis Bridge if we’re so moved.

Meet at 11AM by Jefferson Davis Parkway and Tulane Avenue ready to take back one of our nicest green spaces!
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Participants are encouraged to bring their own gloves and garbage bags, but we will try to bring a limited supply of extras. The trash mob will last for about 1.5 to 2 hours, but people can participate however long they would like.

For those that are new to NOLA Trash Mob, we are a group of volunteers who want to change the way New Orleans thinks about litter, primarily through clean-ups or “trash mobs”. For these trash mobs, we select a public space, usually a particular city block or area that has a significant amount of litter, and we set a time and day to go and pick up trash there. They usually are scheduled about once a week on Sunday mornings.

We welcome feedback from the community of where areas there is a lot of litter to target for future trash mobs. Additionally, if anyone knows of any organizations that would like to publicize and/or sponsor a trash mob event, we are always in need of publicity, incentives for participants, and trash grabbers to save the mob’s back.

So tell your friends and come on out this Sunday to join NOLA Trash Mob!

Check it out on Facebook…
https://www.facebook.com/NolaTrashMob#!/events/130778570459960/

Filed Under: More Great Posts! Tagged With: carrollton, clean, cleanup, keep new orleans beautiful, litter, mob, New Orleans, sweep, trash, trash mob, tulane, up

Tulane Community Health Center Dedication

June 5, 2012 by Charlie London

The Ruth U Fertel / Tulane Community Health Center will be dedicated this Thursday at 1:00 at the old flagship Ruth’s Chris on the corner of Orleans and North Broad.



The new community health and healing center at the corner of N. Broad and Orleans Avenue represents the transformation of a Katrina-battered site into a community centerpiece. The facility will offer medical care and community services to the neighborhood and is a living tribute to the memory of two caring and compassionate women, Ruth Fertel and Mary Jane Brinton. Watch more in the video.

Filed Under: HISTORY, More Great Posts! Tagged With: bayou, bayou st john, broad, clinic, community, faubourg, faubourg st john, health, New Orleans, orleans, tulane

Carnival Designs Online

January 24, 2012 by Charlie London

LaRC is very pleased to report that we have completed our two-year project to place online more than 5,500 original float and costume designs from the “Golden Age of Carnival.” You can view the collection here.

The bulk of LaRC’s online collection includes designs from Comus (1882-1975) and Proteus (1882-1939). The collection also includes designs from Momus (1902-1913), and Rex (1912-1914). The designs also reveal the work of Carnival’s most notable designers, including Charles Briton, Jennie Wilde, Carlotta Bonnecaze, and Bror Anders Wikstrom.

The project has three purposes: to make Carnival designs easily available to students and scholars around the world; to reveal the true artistry and beauty behind Carnival in New Orleans; and to digitally preserve these international treasures. Library staff made high-quality scans using the latest archival-grade equipment and digital preservation standards. Master files are stored on an off-campus server which is backed up daily to servers out of state, helping ensure the permanent preservation of the digital files.

We wish to thank Howard-Tilton Memorial Library’s Web Services Department (led by David Comeaux) and intern Kathryn Rumer for their expertise and hard work. We also gratefully acknowledge support from Dr. Bruce Raeburn, Director of Special Collections, the Charles L. “Pie” Dufour Fund, and a grant from the Tulane University Office of the Provost.

The Art of Proteus On Display During the Carnival Season
In celebration of the successful completion of our online Carnival project, LaRC is exhibiting Proteus float and costume designs in our gallery. Included are costume designs from 1882, 1885, 1886, 1905, and 1907, and float designs from 1882, 1883, and 1885.

The designs are not only stunningly beautiful works of art in their own right but working drawings used by artisans, with pin holes where they were tacked to a wall or board while being used. Particularly interesting are hand-written notes on the designs indicating sizes, colors, and measurements.

This is a rare opportunity to view original artworks from the world’s largest Carnival design collection. The exhibit will be on display through May in room 205, Jones Hall, from 9-5 Monday – Friday and 9-1 Saturday mornings.

Courtesy the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University. Click on the photo for source.

The Carnival digitization project reached a major milestone in July, 2011 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.

Filed Under: HISTORY, More Great Posts! Tagged With: carnival, gras, mardi, New Orleans, research, tulane

Back Away from the Drive-Thru

September 24, 2011 by Charlie London

Those drive-thru places offer quick food but at what cost? Your health, your sanity?

Everyone knows that stuff isn’t good for you and barking your order through a speaker can’t be good for for your mental health. Oh, but the price is cheap and it’s quick.

Consider this, you can have food prepared by a chef for the same or less cost in an environment that will relax your mind and regenerate your spirit. And, you’ll be helping a non-profit that helps others.

Where is this place you ask? At 422 1/2 South Broad. It’s called Liberty’s Kitchen and is a NON-profit restaurant that provides jobs for at-risk youth. The food is prepared by Chef Reggie Davis and the price is right.

The downside? You have to go in and sit down. You get your food prepared and served by people who actually care about what you are eating, and you might spend a total of thirty minutes enjoying your meal. (more if you partake of the free wireless internet)

So, back away from the drive-thru and head on over to Liberty’s Kitchen at 422 South Broad near Tulane Avenue. Your physical and mental health will thank you.

Click here to listen to what Ian McNulty has to say about Liberty’s Kitchen.

Faubourg St. John neighbor Janet Davas is the Director of Liberty’s Kitchen.http://www.libertyskitchen.org/files/LIBERTY__S_KITCHEN_CAFE_MENU.pdf

Liberty’s Kitchen Café and Coffee House – A Product with a Purpose

The retail establishment at 422½ South Broad offers an espresso bar serving Starbucks® coffee and espresso beverages as well as a full service kitchen serving breakfast and lunch – all giving the students an opportunity to learn basic barista and culinary skills in a real life setting. Everything at Liberty’s Kitchen is made “from scratch” – from the pastries to salad dressings to soups and stocks. Not only does this give customers a quality dining experience, but Chef Reggie Davis has designed the menu with an eye for training opportunities.

http://www.libertyskitchen.org/files/LIBERTY__S_KITCHEN_CAFE_MENU.pdf

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: breakfast, broad, cheap eats, faubourg st john, fsjna, good food, janet davas, liberty's kitchen, lunch, New Orleans, tulane

Tulane Digitizes Carnival

September 15, 2011 by Charlie London

Courtesy the Louisiana Research Collection at Tulane University. Click on the photo for source.

The 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.

Filed Under: Featured, HISTORY Tagged With: bayou st john, carnival, comus, costume, faubourg st john, float, fsjna, mardi gras, momus, New Orleans, rex, tulane

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