Touro Infirmary Archives
A vast collection spanning the history of the oldest continuously operating hospital in New Orleans.
The story of Touro Infirmary, the oldest currently operating hospital in New Orleans, begins in 1852, when philanthropist Judah Touro purchased a mansion on what is now the 1100 block of South Peters Street to establish a “Hebrew Hospital of New Orleans.” When the city was captured in 1862 amid the Civil War, Touro Infirmary was temporarily converted into a home for elderly Jews to prevent it from being seized by the Union Army for medical use. By 1869, it reopened as a hospital. Touro moved to its present location at Foucher and Prytania Streets in 1882 and expanded as its role in the city grew. The hospital became such a fixture that the surrounding area was also eventually named Touro in the City of New Orleans’s official neighborhood map, originally charted in 1974.
By 1990, Touro had been serving patients in New Orleans for nearly 140 years. Like many large and enduring institutions, the hospital accumulated substantial historic material over time, leading to the formal establishment of an archival department. Between 1990 and 2020, Touro archivists cataloged a massive collection occupying 375 linear feet of shelf space, slightly longer than a football field. When Touro decided to close its in-house archive, the hospital entrusted ongoing preservation to HNOC.
Spanning administrative records, photographs, medical instruments, and more, the collectionOpens in new tab documents over a century of healthcare in New Orleans. A remarkable 1855–60 admission book, Touro’s first, paints a picture of its earliest patients in an unprecedented level of detail. Because of Touro’s original riverside location, sailors and dockworkers from around the world are represented, as are enslaved people. Due to abhorrent ship conditions, many arrived at the port with serious ailments and were hospitalized before being placed on the city’s slave markets.
Some items are unexpected, such as an 1878 “Touro Inf.” cattle brand used to mark the cows that supplied fresh milk to patients, and a 78-rpm record of “Relaxin’ at the TouroOpens in new tab,” written by jazz cornetist Muggsy Spanier to commemorate his recovery after a lifesaving 1938 surgery by Dr. Alton Ochsner, who practiced at Touro before founding his own Louisiana health institution. The collection also includes photos, prescriptions, and correspondence related to fellow famed doctor Rudolph Matas, the pioneering New Orleanian known as the “father of vascular surgery” and developer of the IV drip technique, who joined Touro in 1895.
Among the Touro Infirmary School of Nursing (TISON) records—tracing its entire operational history from 1896 to 1987—are a set of eight dolls dressed in miniature replicas of TISON uniforms throughout time, a whimsical complement to photos of nearly every graduating class dressed in their new, fully qualified nurse uniforms.
The Touro Infirmary Archives have research potential for many subjects of hospital administration, medical practice, nursing education, and regional Jewish history.
By Michael M. Redmann
Collection Highlights
Dive into the Collection’s holdings with image-rich previews of treasures from New Orleans history.
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