From 1858 to 1861, when the art of photography was itself only twenty years old, Jay Dearborn Edwards (1831–1900) scrupulously documented antebellum New Orleans in images. Edwards chose a range of subjects as the focus for his arduously produced photographs, with special attention paid to commercial activities in the bustling southern city. Pictures include views of Esplanade Avenue, today’s towering oaks just young saplings; a view of Decatur Street with an endless line of steamboats at its docks; and Canal Street before its modern incarnation as a bustling thoroughfare, instead shown as an idyllic city street complete with a pastoral neutral ground down the center. A Closer Look provides an intimate view of old New Orleans in its antebellum heyday.