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A vintage illustration depicts the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. Soldiers on horseback lead troops, with an American flag visible in the background. The scene conveys a historical military engagement. Caption in German at the bottom.
“Schlacht bei Neu Orleans am 8. Januar 1815.”; engraving HNOC, 1959.160.6
Research Pathfinder

Germans in Louisiana, Part III

German Views of New Orleans and Louisiana

An old map titled Grundriss von Neu-Orleans shows the street layout of New Orleans near the Mississippi River. The map includes numbered and labeled buildings, a legend in German, and distinct blocks with a grid pattern.

Introduction

Perhaps due in part to John Law’s campaign to engage them to settle Louisiana for the Company of the Indies, German-speaking people of Europe were familiar with Louisiana as a sort of exotic possibility (or, in many cases, a necessity) from the beginning. Over the centuries, German views of Louisiana and New Orleans have portrayed life in the region as utilitarian, curious, exotic, and even utopian. 

Early examples from HNOC’s materials concerning this subject are a German-language broadside advertising the endeavors of the Company of the Indies, and a German plan of the City of New Orleans from 1764. In the mid-19th century, Henry Lewis, the American consul at Düsseldorf, produced a series of color lithographs romantically illustrating life along the entire length of the Mississippi, and included them in a book, which he also wrote, entitled The Valley of the Mississippi Illustrated (Das Illustrirte Mississippithal). The intended audience of the book was potential German emigrants, for whom the book was translated into German. The English original has since been lost, and the English language version in HNOC’s library is in fact a translation of the original German translation. Also, our visual holdings include a number of the prints for the book. These images helped whet the imagination of many Germans considering seeking their fortunes in America. 

In the German Study File, there are a number of contemporary examples of official correspondence between representatives of communities in Louisiana with their counterparts in Germany. These reveal something about a modern German perception of Louisiana communities made up of the descendants of German emigrants. 

The German conception of Louisiana and New Orleans is a compelling area of interest, but there are limited resources within HNOC’s holdings that speak to this theme. More well documented in our collections is how the Germans of Louisiana and New Orleans viewed their adopted region, and, for that matter, country. Certainly the rapid assimilation of immigrants to the American identity is a well-known characteristic of American history. The existence and persistence of so many German institutions, publications, and cultural elements in New Orleans, however, allows one to speak of a German community identity that remained (remains), over generations, despite assimilation. Our collections include some of the many German-language newspapers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as numerous translations into German of English-language publications. These documents reveal much about the unique lens through which the Germans of New Orleans saw their world. 

Manuscripts Holdings 

A vintage illustration depicts a cotton plantation scene with workers carrying cotton, palm trees, and houses by a river. A boat is docked near the shore, and the landscape is lush and tropical. Text reads Cotton Plantation and Eine Baumwoll-Pflanzung.
Cotton Plantation / Eine Baumwoll-Pflamzung, ca. 1855. HNOC, 1953.16

Visual Materials 

Library Holdings 

 

Part IV. Music and Socializing
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