Photo courtesy of New Orleans Pharmacy Museum on Facebook New Orleans tends to be known more for its food, music and nightlife than its museums, but this city actually excels at visitor-friendly educational institutions. Our museums tend to focus on local knowledge subjects that exist close to...

By: Sally Reeves Secluded in the muddle of the French Quarter's raucous street life linger elements that still impart a kind of stately antiquity. They are Spanish and French-era pieces. Some are rightly celebrated for their survival of the epochs; others, dressed in garish costumes at the shop...

Image courtesy of Onasill - Bill Badzo By: Sally Reeves Jackson Square, and the land around it, was always for the use of the public, or so it seemed. There was the church (St. Louis Cathedral), the priests' house (The Presbytere), and the town hall with the prison (The Cabildo). There was...

By: Ian McNulty History seekers can find a handful of monuments and memorials to the Civil War around New Orleans’ parks, museums and public spaces, but to experience one enduring local legacy of the conflict you need only order a cup of coffee. That would be coffee with chicory, to be more...

By: Jyl Benson Throughout its history, the French Quarter has all but sounded a siren’s call to extreme personalities. Depending upon what drives them, they may lob off the heads of chickens and invoke mysterious spirits while chanting and dancing around a burning fire like Marie Laveau or...

By: Sally Reeves Founded as a military-style grid of seventy squares in 1718 by French Canadian naval officer Jean Baptiste Bienville, the French Quarter of New Orleans has charted a course of urbanism for parts of four centuries. Bienville served as governor for financier John Law's Company of...

[caption id="attachment_5898" align="alignnone" width="222"] Jean Laffite "The Corsair" by E.H. Suydam[/caption] By: Sally Reeves Laffite the pirate, a curious fellow, has been evading the establishment. If once he escaped the sheriff, today he still eludes the historical authorities. Who...

By: Sally Reeves Top to bottom: The first-ever Natchez, built in 1823. The 206-ton fledgling made history in 1825 transporting General Lafayette through the Mississippi Valley. The Natchez of racing fame, built in 1869. A colossal gamble to preserve the steamboat freight buisiness, it was not...

By: Ian McNulty Top to bottom: Buddy Bolden, Sidney Bechet, Bunk Johnson New Orleans has always been different, complex and intriguing, so it’s fitting that jazz, the musical style the city created and gave to the world, should follow the same tune. Jazz is a byproduct of the unique...

Streetcars on Canal Street. Photo by Tom Bastin on Flickr At a grand 171 feet wide, traversed by streetcars, taxis, automobiles, cyclists, and pedestrians, Canal Street is more than just a major downtown thoroughfare. Throughout its 216-year history, it also has served as an entertainment...