Halloween (like you didn’t know) is tomorrow and if you haven’t come up with a costume we have found some serious inspiration in the Special Collections & Archives for you!

Auguste Wahlen’s Mœurs, usages et costumes de tous les peuples du monde, d’après des documents and authentiques et les voyages des plus récents, is a 4 volume set (published 1843-1844) covering traditional dress from all over the world. Not only are these volumes eye-candy for fueling your Halloween costume dreams, but they are also a useful resource for those involved in theater costuming and performance studies.

Take a look!

These volumes are available for research Monday – Friday, 9:00-4:30 at the Monroe Library Special Collections & Archives.

3 of the 4 volumes can also be found through Google Books: here, here, and here.

Happy Halloween!!!

WPA; "LSU Stadium Dedication; Hopkins speaking (side)", 11/28/1936

Last week, staff from the Monroe Library watched a webinar titled “Needles in the Haystack of History: How to Use the WPA Historical Records Survey.” The webinar discussed the Work Projects Administration Historical Records Survey (WPA HRS), a discovery tool for government records from the 1700s through the early 1940s. The webinar included presentations by librarians from the University of Missouri, Troy University, and the University of Kentucky, which is now a Center of Excellence for the WPA. You can view the slides from the webinar by clicking here, selecting “Slide Presentation” on the right, and clicking “View.”

The WPA was a New Deal agency aimed at employment of American workers public construction and arts and literacy projects. The Historical Records Survey was originally part of the WPA Federal Writers’ Project and dealt with surveying and indexing records held by state, county and local archives.

Documents produced by the Louisiana Historical Records Survey include directories of churches in Louisiana and inventories of manuscript and archival collections around the state. The project was conducted from 1935-1943, so the holdings of various archives around the state will have changed substantially. However, the WPA HRS publications provide some valuable information, including demographic and population statistics, bureaucratic processes, vital statistics, and cemetery and newspaper indexes. Publications such as the American Imprints Inventory: Bibliography of the Official Publications of Louisiana 1803-1934 provide information about where various publications were housed at the time and may provide clues to contemporary researchers trying to track down public records.

Some WPA HRS publications are digitized and available through the Hathi Trust Digital Library, including the Directory of churches and religious organizations in New Orleans, Calendars of manuscript collections in the Department of Archives, Louisiana State University (No. 1: Taber Collection), and Inventory of the records of World war emergency activities in Louisiana, 1916-1920. A full list of Louisiana Historical Records Survey publications in the Hathi Trust is available here. Hathi Trust also has digitized publications from many other states.

Special Collections & Archives at Loyola also has a number of publications which can be viewed Monday – Friday from 9am-4:30pm. The list of holdings is here.

For more information check out the University of Kentucky’s WPA Guide, or contact Monroe Library Special Collections & Archives staff.

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

Old Absinthe House (1904)- From "Early Views of the Vieux Carre"

Many of us often find ourselves in some portion of the French Quarter, whether that be browsing the French Market, grabbing some beignets, or venturing down Bourbon. The French Quarter was the original heart of New Orleans, and the Special Collections archives have a few books that show the Vieux Carre in it’s early days.

This image of Toulouse at Bourbon and the above image are from "Early Views of the Vieux Carre, New Orleans," featuring scenes by William Woodward. The publication is presented by the Issac Delgado Museum of Art, located in City Park.

It looks very different now from the good ol’ days of the early 1900′s!

"On Chartres Street- Horse and Wagon Days-In 1905" from "French Quarter Etchings" by William Woodward

View of St Louis Cathedral from Chartres on Bastille Day, 1905- from "French Quarter Etchings" by William Woodward

When you walk down one of the many historic streets of the Quarter today, you can still see that it has retained most of it’s historic charm, and even recognize some of the scenes from over one hundred years ago that are still here today. You can still take a horse and carriage ride down some sections of the Quarter, and the St. Louis Cathedral is still a highly visited and recognizably New Orleans location.

The Old Absinthe House (1904)- Seen from Bourbon- From "Early Views of the Vieux Carre"

Can you see the streetcar tracks in the foreground of the above image? In “Early Views of the Vieux Carre,” it states that these tracks carried the streetcar named “Desire.”

You can come view these books and more in Special Collections, Monroe Library 3rd floor, Monday-Friday 9:30am-4:30pm.

Blog post by Maureen Kelly, a Special Collections work-study student.

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

George Washington Cable (1844-1925) is well known for his writing depicting Creole life in nineteenth century New Orleans (most notably Old Creole Days and The Grandissimes). Less well known, perhaps, is his penchant for gardening, and his 1914 book The Amateur Garden. Illustrated with many photographs of home gardens, Cable’s book asks such important questions as “Where to Plant What?”

Hence the initial questions – a question which every amateur gardener must answer for himself. How much subservency of nature to art and utility is really necessary to my own and my friends’ and       neighbors’ best delights? For – be not deceived – however enraptured of wild nature you may be, you do and must require of her some  subserviency close about your own dwelling.

Cable offers additional advice and encouragement to the amateur:

“Muffle your architectural angles in foliage and bloom”

And from Cable’s own garden:

“Some clear disclosure of charm still remote may beckon and lure”

The entire book The Amatuer Garden has been digitized and made available on the Internet Archive.

More recent gardening help can be found in “Gardening in New Orleans: A Publication of the New Orleans Gardening Society”.

Published in 1952, this volume walks the home gardener through all manner of foliage, including chapters on ferns, flowering vines, and azaleas, just to name a few.

Encourage your green thumb and come in to Special Collections and Archives to view these books for yourself!

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

It only takes a second for someone to walk away with your backpack, textbook or laptop.

Laptop cable locks and locker keys are available for checkout at the Learning Commons Desk.

Oct. 20 through 26 is Open Access Week.  Open Access is the free, immediate, online access to the results of scholarly research.  It has positive implications for publishing scholars and for students looking for free, high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship. Visit the Monroe Library’s Open Access guide and the Open Textbook guide for more information.

It is that time of year again! Ghouls, witches, and vampires return to our campus for another year of Halloween festivities. Halloween is the perfect time to go out in the city, watch scary movies, eat large sums of candy, and dress up in the wackiest or scariest costume. No plans for Halloween because you have an exam? Not this year! Halloween is on a Friday! Take full advantage of it.  Not sure how? In need of ideas? Maybe 1986 or 1998 Loyola students can inspire you. In 1986, Loyola students spent Halloween at parties, decorating the residences halls, trick or treating, or handing out candy to the underprivileged from the resident halls. In 1998, students trick or treated, ventured to the French Quarter to show off their costumes, went to haunted houses, participated in a pumpkin carving contest, drove around playing tricks on friends, attended scary movie screenings, or attended a seminar on paranormal research. Hope one of these ideas spark your interest and have spooktacular Halloween!

Blog post by Nydia Araya, a Special Collections work-study student.

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

Now that Fall is here and the nice weather is upon us (well, sort of), it’s time to get out there and join your Wolfpack ancestors in getting physical!

See more images of Loyola’s past at Special Collections & Archives University Photographs online.

And, for additional inspiration, some lagniappe:

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

When I was looking through our stacks for a special volume to blog about, I came across Mordecai Cubitt Cooke’s Rust, Smut, Mildew and Mold: an introduction to the study of microscopic fungi.

I was initially impressed by the illustrations…

I then found written passages that showed signs of a true eccentric at work which peaked my interest even further…

Made curious, I did a little more research… and found a man with a truly fascinating life!

• He worked in and contributed to the Herbarium in the Kew Royal Botanical Gardens Museum.
• Edited the journals Grevillea and Hardwicke’s Science Gossip.
• Co-founder of the British Mycology Society in 1896.
• Got an honorary M.A from Yale in 1873.
• Was awarded the Linnean Medal from The Linnean Society in 1903.

M.C. Cooke did not have much in the way of a formal education but wrote hundreds of articles and books on botany and mycology. Collected roughly 46,000 specimens, contributed over 20 years of service to museum collections while editing journals and founding societies.

Mordecai was a busy guy!

Rust, Smut, Mildew and Mold: an introduction to the study of microscopic fungi, is viewable in its entirety at the Internet Archive online, or by visiting the Special Collections and Archives anytime Monday through Friday, 9:00 – 4:30.

It’s the middle of the semester, and for many of you that means midterm exams. Take solace in the fact that Loyola students have been working hard at their exams for over 50 years…

Uh-oh…

Wait, wake up!

Persevere! (And stay awake). Fall Break is just around the corner!

These photos and many more are available in the Loyola University Photographs Collection in the Louisiana Digital Library. Some of our favorites are currently on display in Special Collections & Archives in our Candid Campus exhibit. Stop by between 9 and 4:30pm, Monday – Friday to check it out.

Found in the Archives is a recurring series of crazy cool stuff found in the Monroe Library’s Special Collections & Archives.