The Historic New Orleans Collection

The Historic New Orleans Collection welcomes IASPM-US conference participants to New Orleans and invites them to spend time exploring its wonderful treasures. We encourage you to spend some time on its website, www. hnoc.org, before your visit to get an idea of its collection so that you can schedule some time during your trip and book any necessary appointments with HNOC staffers. (The “Collections and Research” tab at the top of the website page will direct you to its online catalogue. Specific research requests may be sent via email to wrc@hnoc.org. Its reference staff is prepared for our arrival and stand ready to help.)

Its collections include the William Russell Jazz Collection, which features 42,500 items tracing the development of jazz in New Orleans that follows the migration of New Orleans musicians to New York, Chicago, California and beyond, and manuscripts that include sheet music printed in New Orleans during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras.

The Historic New Orleans Collection is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. General and Mrs. L. Kemper Williams, collectors of Louisiana materials, established the institution in 1966 to keep their collection intact and available for research and exhibition to the public.

Over the 40 years since its founding, The Historic New Orleans Collection has added to its holdings and augmented the physical structures that house them, established ambitious publishing and exhibition schedules, and developed innovative educational programs.

In a complex of historic French Quarter buildings at 533 Royal Street, The Collection operates a museum, which includes the Williams Gallery for changing exhibitions and the Louisiana History Galleries, (ten galleries showcasing permanent displays tracing Louisiana’s multifaceted past); the Williams Residence (a house museum); a museum shop; and administrative offices. The Williams Research Center at 410 Chartres Street, which opened in 1996, makes available to researchers The Collection’s holdings which comprise some 35,000 library items, more than two miles of documents and manuscripts, and approximately 350,000 photographs, prints, drawings, paintings, and other artifacts.