Historic Photos of New Orleans

Historic Photos of New Orleans by Melissa Lee Smith is a book that enables the reader to go on a photographic journey of New Orleans’ rich history from 1870 – 1969. Photos include the French Quarter, Garden District, and Storyville.

Book Description
“New Orleans is a truly unique American city, where Spanish, French, Caribbean, African, and other cultures have mingled together to create inimitable styles of music, architecture, and cuisine. New Orleans mixes the fascinating with the notorious, as demonstrated by such diverse neighborhoods as the lively French Quarter, the elegant Garden District, and the infamous Storyville—each vital to the New Orleans landscape. Historic Photos of New Orleans, available in December 2007 from Turner Publishing, celebrates the Crescent City in nearly 200 striking, black-and-white photographs. Author Melissa Lee Smith captures the resilient spirit, fun-loving attitude, and beautiful scenery of New Orleans with scenes of celebration and everyday life. As natives of the Big Easy say, laissez les bons temps rouler (let the good times roll)!”

My Thoughts
Turning through the pages of this book is like stepping back in time to a place where Spanish, French, Caribbean, African and other cultures mixed together to form a truly unique city.

Looking through the photos, it was fun to be able to notice where some of the photos were captured at. I went to New Orleans last year for my birthday, and the hotel we stayed at was right across from the Mint (pictured on page 33). The French Market is a place everyone goes to in the French Quarter, and seeing how it looked so many years ago was really remarkable (pictured on pages 20 and 71). Throughout the pictures that included the streetcars I was also quite impressed by the number of streetcars that used to be in use in New Orleans. It is sad that they are not in use as much anymore (and take a long time to wait for one going in your direction nowadays). The St. Louis Cathedral and the St. Louis Cemetery both look quite the same as they do today, and are two of my favorite places to go in New Orleans.

The author, Melissa Lee Smith did a fantastic job putting the pictures and history together for Historic Photos of New Orleans. It is an enjoyable book to read and look at to take pleasure in for many years.

New Orleans has had quite a history. If you’ve ever been to New Orleans, and fell in love with the city like I have, this is the perfect book to read about the history of the city and look back at memorable photos of New Orleans.


* Thank you to the publisher of Historic Photos of New Orleans, Turner Publishing for providing me with a review copy of this book. All opinions expressed are my own.