Library Overview

Established in 1889, Tulane University's Special Collections, including Manuscripts, University Archives, Rare Books, Louisiana Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archives, and the Hogan Jazz Archive, is one of Louisiana's older and more heavily used research facilities.

The manuscript holdings comprise more than 4,000 collections covering three linear miles. Among the various strengths of the holdings are 250 collections on the US Civil War from Jefferson Davis to the lowest private; inland waterways, Mardi Gras, medical pioneers, New Orleans authors, New Orleans businesses, social agencies, and Southern Judaica; and the political papers of three Louisiana governors, nine congresspersons, and two New Orleans mayors.

The University Archives preserves the records of Tulane University with 3,600 linear feet of documents, 11,000 slides, and 55,000 photographic negatives.

Rare Books holds 50,000 titles dating from a leaf of the Gutenberg Bible to modern first editions. Special areas of interest are natural history, the American Revolution, American travel accounts, British shire histories, 19th- and 20th-century English language fiction, Russian history and travel, and science fiction and fantasy, with substantial representation of William Faulkner, Lafcadio Hearn, Stendhal, and Robert Southey.

Founded in 1980, the Southeastern Architectural Archives is one of the largest collections of architectural records in the South, including works by antebellum masters, later 19th-century architects, and modernist works and current practicing architects.

The Louisiana Collection holds nearly 25,000 volumes of printed material concerning Louisiana from 1701 onward, plus extensive image, map, and vertical files.

Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Special Collections
6801 Freret Street Room 202
Tulane University
New Orleans, Louisiana 70118-5682
http://specialcollections.tulane.edu/
(504) 865-5685 (t)
(504) 865-5761 (f)