The River Runs Through It: New Orleans and the Mississippi
The River Runs Through It:
New Orleans and the Mississippi


This is the online version of an exhibition currently on view at New Orleans Public Library focusing on the Mississippi River's gifts to New Orleans and city government's role in managing the all-important waterway. The exhibit uses large scale reproductions of original materials--maps, plans, prints, photographs, and documents--from the City Archives and other Louisiana Division collections. We present these images here along with a selection of quotes from a number of authorities on the history of the river and of the city.

"The River Runs Through It: New Orleans and the Mississippi" was designed and mounted by archivists Wayne Everard and Irene Wainwright. Photographic services were provided by Southern Lights, Inc., and Ridgways, Inc. supplied imaging and lamination services. Additional lamination work was provided by Robert Baxter and Charles Delong of NOPL's Duplications Division.

This exhibition is part of the City of New Orleans' celebration of its 280th anniversary. It will remain on view at the Main Library through July, 1998. Visitors to the Library can view a selection of additional original materials in the display cases on the Main Library's third floor.


Link from the black squares below to a larger version of each image and its accompanying caption and text.

The title image
View of New Orleans, taken from the Lower Cotton Press (published by Louis Schwartz, ca. 1850)

From Survey of the Mississippi River made under the direction of the Mississippi River Commission, 1874-1894

Print of the levee at New Orleans

Plan of the project to widen the levee of the Second Municipality, Joseph Pilie, June 15, 1827.

The steamboat John A. Scudder

Plan for a garbage boat, C. Crozet, August, 1836.

This print, probably from the 1830s, shows the city from the Algiers shore

Menu for a special dinner aboard the John W. Cannon in 1881.

The arrival of Rex from his royal barge, February 11, 1907

Profiles showing the level of the batture in front of the Faubourg Ste. Marie, 1807.

From ca. 1905, the old and the new

Design of a pier to cover the suction pipe of the pump for supplying water to the City of New Orleans, Benjamin Henry Latrobe, January 29, 1819.

Register of flatboats, barges, rafts, and steamboats in the port of New Orleans, 1806 - 1812.

Roustabouts on the New Orleans levee, ca. 1890.

Plan of sounding lines off the levee of the First Municipality, ca. 1838.

List of passengers aboard the Brig Pedraza from Nassau, New Providence, May 16, 1851.
Steamboats tied up at the levee, ca. 1880.
River activity documented in the New Orleans Daily Crescent, April 25, 1861.
The ferry boatA.M.Halliday, photographed at dock during the visit of President Theodore Roosevelt to New Orleans, October 26, 1905.


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