New Exhibit: Impressing the Client 1868-1940

This exhibit examines ways architects present their work to potential clients. Part I features proposals for tombs and memorials from the Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company; part II features residence proposals from New Orleans architect James Freret. The original items are on display in Room 300, Jones Hall. Click the image to view the online version of the exhibit.

The Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA), a department within Tulane University Library's Special Collections Division, is one of the larger collections of architectural records in the southern U.S. Since its founding in 1980, SEAA has built an archival collection for the study of the built environment of New Orleans and Louisiana. Our holdings include work by James Gallier, Henry Howard and other architects who shaped the antebellum city; James Freret and Thomas Sully, from the later nineteenth century; and modernist work by Curtis and Davis, Freret and Wolf, Leonard Reese Spangenberg, James Lamantia, and other New Orleans architects who changed the scale and style of architecture in the city after the second world war.

Specialized research collections include plans and records from one of the South's largest funerary monument designers, the Albert Weiblen Marble and Granite Company; extensive photographic holdings; and the Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners.

Access searchable finding aids to SEAA collections.

NEW! Special Collections Vertical Files

Special Collections is pleased to announce an online search tool for our extensive vertical files. Our vertical file collection preserves Louisiana flyers, brochures, menus, and other small printed items going back to the very early 19th-century and covering almost almost every aspect of Louisiana society and culture. Subjects include neighborhood organizations, parks, schools, churches and synagogues, post-Katrina planning and renewal, and other aspects of Louisiana's built environment, which may be beneficial in architectural research. Special Collections vertical files are located in the main Special Collections reading room, Jones Hall, Room 202.

Provides access to New Orleans and other Louisiana towns and cities. Founded in 1867 by D. A. Sanborn, the Sanborn Map Company was the primary American publisher of fire maps for over 100 years, repeatedly mapping towns and cities as they changed. The maps provide a wealth of information, such as building outline, size and shape, construction materials, height, building use, windows and doors, street and sidewalk widths, boundaries, house numbers, and more. The plans often include information and shading for steel beams or reinforced walls, plus symbols for stables, garages, warehouses, etc.

In electronic form, Sanborn Maps take on much improved value over the microfilm versions of the same maps, allowing for greater flexibility of use and improved viewing possibilities. Users have the ability to easily manipulate the maps, magnify and zoom in on specific sections, and layer maps from different years.

*Accessing Sanborn Maps from off-campus
If you are on the Tulane campus, any computer linked directly to the school's server will give you access to the Sanborns. If you are off-campus, click here for information about accessing Tulane's online resources.
 

HABS and HAER are collections of documentary measured drawings, photographs, and written historical and architectural information for over 35,000 structures and sites in the United States and its territories.

• Search the HABS/HAER database at the Library of Congress
   
• HABS/ HAER at the National Park Service.

Atlas of the City of New Orleans, Louisiana, published by E. Robinson in New York City in 1883 contains thirty maps compiled from surveys conducted by New Orleans city surveyor and architect John F. Braun. Braun most likely created the maps during the latter part of the 1870s. 

Originally created for the use of insurance companies, Robinson’s Atlas  is now a rich source of information that records existing lots, buildings (noting whether wood or brick), and geographic landmarks. Printed street names are contemporaneous to publication; hand-written name changes were added at a later undetermined date, making the Robinson Atlas an excellent source for tracing street names.

The Robinson Atlas online is a service of the New Orleans Notarial Archives.

Website and online exhibits created by Kevin Williams

The Southeastern Architectural Archives a department within the
Special Collections Division of Howard-Tilton Memorial Library.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 01:29 PM. We welcome your comments and suggestions.