LGBT+ Archives Project and Barnett's Furniture Store

Our friends in Tulane University's Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC) will be honored at the 4th annual Oracle Gala of the LGBT+ Archives Project of Louisiana. Founders of Southern Decadence will present LaRC with the official donation of their records. The LGBT+ Archives Project works with New Orleans and Louisiana archives to preserve the written record of the history of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender groups and individuals, and to find permanent homes for these important materials.

This year's Oracle Gala will be held at the Ace Hotel in New Orleans this coming Sunday evening. SEAA preserves the original drawings for the hotel's original occupant, Barnett's Furniture, in our Weiss, Dreyfous, and Seiferth (W,D,S) Office Records. W,D,S was the New Orleans architectural firm also responsible for the current Louisiana State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, the unoccupied Charity Hospital in New Orleans, much of the second phase of the Louisiana State University campus in Baton Rouge, the St. Bernard Parish Courthouse in Chalmette, and many more public, commercial, and residential projects in the state. The drawings below are pencil on tracing paper, and include the Carondelet and Lafayette Street elevations, details of the beautiful Art Deco details, and details showing the Barnett name. They are dated July 1927, and are very dark and dirty--apologies for the poor quality photos.

Tulane Buildings

1932 proposal for the Tulane campus by Moise
Goldstein and Nathaniel Curtis, Sr. 

We had a Tulane alum visiting Special Collections on Friday, and brought out a few drawings of Tulane University buildings. Included is an ink on linen 1893 front elevation for Gibson Hall (originally the Arts and Sciences building) by Harrod and Andry, a watercolor on illustration board for an unrealized Moise Goldstein proposal for a bell tower between Gibson Hall and Tilton Hall, ca. 1920s, and a 1932 watercolor proposed plan for Tulane's campus by Moise Goldstein and Nathaniel Curtis, Sr. (drawn by Samuel Wilson, Jr. and Earl Mathes). A Jay Dearborn Edwards ca. 1857 photo of the James Robb residence at Washington and Camp Streets in New Orleans. Robb lost the house and it's contents of his art collection due to the stock market crash in late-1857, probably just months after this image was taken. The Robb house was sold to John Burnside, and in 1891, the residence was sold to become the second home of Newcomb College. 

Watercolor proposal for bell tower for Tulane University by Moise H. Goldstein.

Front elevation from Arts and Sciences Building (now Gibson Hall), Tulane University.
Harrod and Andry, architects. 1893.

Jay Dearborn Edwards' photo of Robb residence, ca.1857.

From our Koch and Wilson Office Records, we brought out a 1949 Richard Koch colored pencil on tracing paper elevation for Tulane's Paterson House dormitory, a large watercolor on illustration board elevation for Monroe Hall dormitory from 1962. And from 1958 an ink wash elevation for the Student Medical Center by Burk, LeBreton, and Lamantia, and also by them a 1963 watercolor elevation for Butler Hall dormitory, both drawn by James R. Lamantia. 

Richard Koch drawing for Paterson House dormitory, Tulane University.
1949.

Monroe Hall dormitory, Diboll, Kessels, and Associates; Richard Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr., architects. 1962.

Tulane Student Health Center. Burk, LeBreton, and Lamantia,
architects. 1958.

Butler Hall dormitory, Tulane University. Burk, LeBreton, and Lamantia, architects. 1963.