Tag: history

  • Home Sweet Home: Gambino’s Locations Over the Last 75 Years

    Home Sweet Home: Gambino’s Locations Over the Last 75 Years

    As part of our 75th anniversary, we’re digging through the archives to find everything we can about our history. In the process, we’re learning things even we had lost to time! Today, we’re looking at all of the locations that Joe Gambino’s Bakery has occupied in Louisiana since its founding in 1949. We wanted to…

  • How 75 Years of Help Wanted Ads Tell the Story of Gambino’s and the Wider World

    How 75 Years of Help Wanted Ads Tell the Story of Gambino’s and the Wider World

    In celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Joe Gambino’s Bakery, we scoured local newspaper archives to see what we could learn about our past. One window into that past was through Help Wanted ads. They tell us a lot about our bakery, as well as how much our world has changed these last seven-and-a-half decades. It’s…

  • The New Orleans Bridge That Has Spanned Bayou St. John for More Than a Century

    The New Orleans Bridge That Has Spanned Bayou St. John for More Than a Century

    Whether you call it Magnolia Bridge, Cabrini Bridge, Bayou Bridge, or Old Bayou Bridge, this is the story of the beautiful blue structure that has spanned Bayou St. John and several generations of Louisiana residents. If you spend time around Bayou St. John, you most likely have noticed Magnolia Bridge. Blue and beautiful, it’s also…

  • How the Horses in City Park’s Famous Carousel Learned to Fly

    How the Horses in City Park’s Famous Carousel Learned to Fly

    As the weather cools down, New Orleanians everywhere can finally return to outdoor activities! City Park is a favorite with more than 16 Million visits annually. The 20th most visited park in America has tons to do. A walk through the peaceful Couturie Forest. A kayak on beautiful Bayou Metairie. A round or two of mini-golf…

  • Madame X: The New Orleans Mona Lisa Who Created Scandal in Paris

    Madame X: The New Orleans Mona Lisa Who Created Scandal in Paris

    Surely there are loads of New Orleanians counted among New York City’s 8.5 million residents. But I’d bet few, if any, are so scandalous as Madame X. To be fair, she doesn’t live in New York. She doesn’t live anywhere, actually. She passed away on July 25 of 1915. But a painting of the controversial…

  • Discovering Relics from the 1884 World’s Fair Inside and Outside New Orleans

    Discovering Relics from the 1884 World’s Fair Inside and Outside New Orleans

    Recently, we wrote a blog post about the 1984 New Orleans World’s Fair, known more formally as the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition. If you talk to New Orleanians who were in the city during that time, the six-month-long event was a memorable one. In fact, you can still find relics — both in New Orleans…

  • Fresh Jazz/Old Mint

    Fresh Jazz/Old Mint

    In a city known for its uniqueness, the combined Old U.S. Mint and New Orleans Jazz Museum are among the most unconventional of pairings. Housed in a nearly 200-year-old building, the idea of one of the world’s largest jazz archives being kept in a decommissioned mint may seem incongruent at first. But the merging of…

  • Meet Me Under My Porch’s Flagpole

    Meet Me Under My Porch’s Flagpole

    New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival is entering its 51st year. While last year’s festival had to be canceled, the 2021 festival is scheduled for October. This is good news for music lovers and for the city of New Orleans. This upcoming return to normalcy is a welcome ritual where friends and family unite for…

  • Ashes and Rubble: Rebuilding New Orleans After the Great Fire of 1788

    Ashes and Rubble: Rebuilding New Orleans After the Great Fire of 1788

    It seems no matter where they’re located in the world, every major city has suffered through a devastating fire. While some of the more famous blazes took place in Chicago and London, New Orleans has had several of its own. The largest of these took place in 1788, and the Great Conflagration of New Orleans…

  • With a Bit o’Luck: The History of the Irish in New Orleans

    With a Bit o’Luck: The History of the Irish in New Orleans

    When one thinks of New Orleans, images of brilliantly colored parade floats and boisterous second lines may spring to mind. Or maybe it’s a vision of the French Quarter with its bright pastel Spanish-style townhouses and Creole cottages. The idea of Gothic Irish architecture and huge St. Patrick’s Day parades is probably the last thing…

  • The Meeting of the Courts: When Rex Met Comus

    The Meeting of the Courts: When Rex Met Comus

    While Mardi Gras is known for its lavish parades and costumed revelry, there is also an air of romance and mystery which is sometimes overlooked. Though thousands gather to watch elaborate floats pass by, crying out for various trinkets, few give thought to the royalty waving at the crowds. Masked or bare-faced, the Royal Courts…

  • Twelfth Night and The Feast of the Epiphany

    Twelfth Night and The Feast of the Epiphany

    Many consider December 25th and Christmas Day to be the end of the Christmas season. Trees and decorations are taken down before the new year begins and the idea of continuing to feast after that belly-busting Christmas dinner is unthinkable. But for those who know the 12 Days of Christmas as more than a seasonal…