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Tag: New Orleans

  • 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…

  • Demourelles Island: The Story of New Orleans’ Little-Known Island on Bayou St. John

    Demourelles Island: The Story of New Orleans’ Little-Known Island on Bayou St. John

    You most definitely know about Bayou St. John. It’s one of New Orleans’ treasures, a sanctuary along which you can sit with friends for a drink, jog, or — if the season’s right — maybe even boil some crawfish. But did you know Bayou St. John is also home to an island, called Demourelles Island,…

  • Rediscover the 1984 World’s Fair in Present Day New Orleans

    Rediscover the 1984 World’s Fair in Present Day New Orleans

    For a long time, hosting a World’s Fair was an extremely big deal. People would travel across the globe to a host city to experience the newest, cutting edge technologies and learn about different cultures.  New Orleans hosted its first World’s Fair in 1884, mostly in what is now Audubon Park. But our fair city…

  • The New Orleans Streetcar Through the Years: Part 1

    The New Orleans Streetcar Through the Years: Part 1

    When the sun is shining, there’s hardly an image more iconic in New Orleans than that of a streetcar rumbling down St. Charles Avenue. Tennesee Williams knew it when he wrote his 20th century masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. By then, railway technology had already been spreading across the globe for a hundred years —…

  • Boeuf Gras: Get Your Carnival Fill Before Lent

    Boeuf Gras: Get Your Carnival Fill Before Lent

    If you’ve seen the Rex parade on Fat Tuesday it’s likely you’ve noticed the enormous white bull sitting atop one of the iconic parade’s signature floats. And you’re not alone. Decades of New Orleanians have seen the same bewildering sight. Welcome to Boeuf Gras. The massive creature is known as Boeuf Gras and is one…

  • King Cake’s Cousins Around the Globe

    King Cake’s Cousins Around the Globe

    When you ask most Americans where king cake is eaten, the most frequent answers you’ll hear are Louisiana or New Orleans. But, to the surprise of many, king cake is enjoyed all across Europe and North America.  This is because the king cake tradition began thousands of years ago in Ancient Rome. Mardi Gras (or…

  • Twelfth Night Traditions of New Orleans

    Twelfth Night Traditions of New Orleans

    Twelfth Night — or January 6 — is the undisputed kick-off to Carnival season! But the Twelfth night of what?  In many parts of the world, Twelfth Night and the Christian holiday, Epiphany, are synonymous. One definition of epiphany is “the manifestation of a supernatural being.” In this case, that supernatural being was the baby…

  • 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…