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The Historic New Orleans Collection
A painting depicts a street scene with two people. One sits on a bench outside a wooden building with a louvered facade. Another person stands near a doorway. The architecture features balconies and red-tiled roofs under a cloudy sky.
Virtual Exhibition

French Quarter Life

People and Places in the Vieux Carré

Artistic impressions of New Orleans’s most iconic neighborhood

For more than 150 years, artists from around the world have worked to capture and share their impressions of New Orleans’s most iconic and historic neighborhood. This exhibition gathers paintings from the museum’s permanent collection, including gifts from Louisiana art collector Laura Simon Nelson. From the bustle of the French Market to the beauty of Jackson Square, these artworks explore the streets, buildings, and people of the French Quarter through time and a variety of techniques.

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Exhibitions

French Quarter Life: People and Places in the Vieux Carré

Ongoing

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First Draft

In Rolland Golden’s Sketchbook, a Changing, Timeless French Quarter

First Draft

“One of the Great Literary Curiosities” of French Quarter Bohemia Turns 100

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A smiling woman with curly hair poses in a white outfit and heels. Text reads Chris Owens: Electrifying One Woman Show.

Chris Owens Collection

Maracas and more from the queen of Bourbon Street

An antique Remington Portable typewriter with round keys and a black body, displayed on a plain background.

Tennessee Williams’s “Streetcar” Typewriter

Working on a black Remington, Williams wrote his masterpiece in a French Quarter apartment near the Desire streetcar line. 

A detailed sketch depicts a historic, multi-story building with ornate iron balconies, a lamppost on the street, and a person standing in the foreground. The artwork captures an architectural essence and street scene ambiance.

Antoine’s Restaurant Collection

It’s the oldest continuously operating restaurant in the United States, and its archive at HNOC tells the story of a family business and its place in New Orleans history.

Related Books

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Cover of Garden Legacy featuring a classical illustration of an angelic figure with wings and a flowing pink robe, perched above a column amidst greenery. The background has a decorative geometric pattern.

Garden Legacy

by Mary Louise Mossy Christovich and Roulhac Bunkley Toledano
with a foreword by S. Frederick Starr

Historical painting depicting the founding era of New Orleans. The scene includes sailors, Indigenous people, and European settlers alongside a ship. The title, New Orleans, the Founding Era, appears at the top in English and French.

New Orleans, the Founding Era

edited by / édité par Erin M. Greenwald
translated by / traduit par Henry Colomer

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