Skip to content
The Historic New Orleans Collection
Topic
New Orleans Arts & Media
Filter
Free Black man wearing a turban (detail), 1835, oil painting by Julien Hudson.
Exhibitions

Two Portraits by Julien Hudson

From September 29, 2026

The elusive Creole artist of color makes a rare showing in the Williams Research Center.

Book cover for "Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art, and Obsessions."
Books

Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art, and Obsessions

by Alison Fensterstock and Michael Tisserand

Cosimo Matassa poses for a group photo with Dr. John, Pete Fountain (with clarinet), Art Neville, and Charles Neville.
First Draft

The French Quarter That Made Cosimo Matassa

Before his recording studio changed the course of American popular music, Cosimo Matassa grew up in a teeming French Quarter community that no longer exists.  

Amanda McFillen, HNOC director of audience engagement, is interviewed by NOLA Now.
HNOC in the News

NOLA Now: HNOC Offers Curator Camp for Museum-Loving Teens

April 16, 2026
Happening June 8–12, 2026, the summer program brings history, art, and museums to life for local teens.
Juvenile and Polo Silk, between 1992 and 1999.
Collection highlights

Polo Silk Photographs

His party pics captured the New Orleans music scene when Cash Money Records and New Orleans rap were on the precipice of worldwide fame.

A person wearing a fur coat and sunglasses sits on a wooden bench in front of an ornate, multi-story building with wrought-iron balconies. People walk on the street nearby.
Events

Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference 2027

March 26, 2027, 9 a.m.–4:45 p.m.
Founded in 1995, the Tennessee Williams Scholars Conference is a full day of sessions led by highly acclaimed Williams scholars from across the US and abroad.
Dust jacket on the first USSR edition of Williams’s plays, Iskusstvo, 1967.
First Draft

Glasnost Menagerie

Even while denigrating his work, Soviet reviewers set the stage for Tennessee Williams’s popularity in Russia.

Tapestry depicting St. Louis Cemetery #1
Events

Material Belief: Objects of Faith, Spirit, and Tradition

August 7 to August 9, 2026
Explore the history and cultural context of antiques shaped by belief, devotion, and spiritual practice throughout the American Gulf South.
Catie Rodgers Swing Orchestra
Events

Catie Rodgers and Her Swing Orchestra Featuring Lena Prima

May 8, 2026, 5–7 p.m.
HNOC kicks off its Courtyard Sessions concert series with a tribute to the Great American Songbook.
1 2
...