by nolahistoryguy | Sep 10, 2026 | 1860s, Civil War, French Quarter, Patreon, Patreon NHG
Third Thursdays at the Jefferson Parish Library!
In This Issue
- A Little History… – Our feature story
- Notes from the Lakefront – Updates
- Ad of the Week – advertising blasts from the past!
- How you can help NOLA History Guy – Things you can do right now!
- NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge – Exercise your imagination!
A Little History… The Butcher’s Market, 1864
The Butcher’s Market, 1864. Marshall Dunham Collection, courtesy LSU Libraries Special Collections.
View of the Butcher’s Market section of the French Market, 1864. This photo is part of the Marshall Dunham Collection, courtesy LSU Library, Special Collections. This is one of the earliest photographs of the French Market. The photographer stands directly across from Jackson Square, looking downriver. For reference, this is the current location of Oscar Dunn Park.
The Market
The French Market originated with the indigenous tribes of the area. The French and Spanish constructed permanent buildings, and the structures in this photo date from 1813.
Butchers
The front set of buildings were the Halles de Boucheries, the Butchers’ Market. Farmers raised cattle and hogs away from the city, on open land along Bayou St. John, as well as down in St. Bernard Parish. The butchers bought whole sides of beef from the farmers, then cut them to order in stalls here in the market. The Butcher’s market opened before dawn. Shoppers came out early to get the best cuts of the day. By 11am or so, the heat of the day reached the point where the butchers closed their stalls. After buying meat, shoppers continued down the market to the produce vendors, then across the street to the bakers and dry grocery stores.
Construction
The lumber in the foreground is likely for one of the railroad buildings that went up here as the riverfront returned to its pre-war levels. Railroads operated in New Orleans since 1831 (the Pontchartrain Railroad). Tracks did not connect train stations and rail yards between Uptown and the Marigny until after the Civil War. We’re seeing the beginning of that process here.
Coffee
A Twentieth century photo of this building would show us the world-famous Cafe du Monde coffee shop. Coffee stands operated in the market in the 1860s, but they were not classic sit-down cafes. Workers in the market and along the riverfront walked up to windows (“stands”) to buy their coffee. Women pushed carts up and down Decatur Street, also selling coffee.
After the war, the city desired to “gentrify” the area around Jackson Square. They pushed the butcher’s stalls back from St. Ann Street. Cafe du Monde leased the front of the Butcher’s Market. This added to the appeal of living near the square.
Marshall Dunham
This photo is part of the personal collection of Marshall Dunham, a Union soldier from New York. He came down to New Orleans during the war, eventually being promoted to the rank of Sergeant-Major. He then received a commission as a First Lieutenant in the 77th Regiment, USCT. He collected many photos of the city, particularly from the photographer S. T. Blessing.
Book @NOLAHistoryGuy To Speak At Your Event!https://facebook.com/groups/nolauncovered
Notes from the Lakefront
why the lakefront?
Upcoming Events!
Third Thursday Lecture Next Week
Next week, Thursday 17-September-2026, Derby and I will present The Forgotten Front – How New Orleans and the Gulf South Shaped the American Revolution. This is part of our Third Thursday Lecture Series at the Jefferson Parish Library, East Bank Regional Branch, 4747 W. Napoleon Avenue, Metairie. We’ll start at 7pm, and it’s free and open to the public.
We have so much fun with our tag-team talks!
Talk at the Deutsches Haus on 20-September!
Vintage Ad of the Week
“Pompano Pontchartrain Amandine” at Brennan’s French Restaurant, 417 Royal Street. Ad in the Times-Picayune, 10-September-1957. Note the branding the restaurant used at the time, “French Restaurant.” Brennan’s is, of course, Still There More!
How You Can Help NOLA History Guy
Things you can do RIGHT NOW to help us out!
- Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
- Book NOLA History Guy to speak at your event – Edward speaks to groups ranging in size to local groups like Kiwanis and Rotary to major conventions and trade shows.
- Buy me a Coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
- Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
Books by NOLA History Guy!
NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge
In six words or less, write a story about this image.
Post your story to NOLAHistoryGuy.com on BlueSky, or to New Orleans Uncovered on Facebook. You can also email yours to nolasixwords@nolahistoryguy.com.
What’s this all about?
by nolahistoryguy | Sep 9, 2026 | Napoleonic Period, Patreon, Patreon NHG, Writing Prompts
Continuing our Napoleonic Elite Cavalry series is of four Guard Chasseurs a Cheval at the depot.
Lucien Rousselot – Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry – Plate 11
Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry – Chasseurs a Cheval at the depot
Another painting of Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry by Lucien Rousselot. We see Chasseurs of the Imperial Guard, at their regimental depot. It’s typical morning. Rousselot presents four Chasseurs in the scene, two officers, a sous-officier, and a trooper in the background. One of the officers speaks to the sous-officier, a Maréchal des logis (sergeant), who takes down his commander’s orders in his notebook. The NCO will then carry on with the day’s routine. The men in the front (we’ll get to the trooper in the rear in a moment) wear the redingote, a long, double-breasted coat with a full skirt. It’s likely not a cold day, because they’re not wearing uniform coats under the redingotes. Since they work this morning in the depot, not “walking out,” all four wear the same headgear, the bonnet de police, the regiment’s fatigue cap.
The NCO’s displays more color. His aiguillettes have red woven in, and his sword belt is red leather. The chevron of his rank is on the sleeve of his redingote. Note that he wears his aiguillettes on the left shoulder. The officers both wear theirs on the right.
Legion d’Honneur
The officer on the left waits patiently. He wears the ribbon of the Legion d’Honneur on his left breast. Unlike the sous-officier, his sword hangs from a leather “frog” attached to his belt. It’s tighter on his side than the NCO, whose belt is designed to carry his sword while riding.
The chasseur in the rear wears “stable dress,” which consists of a short jacket and canvas duck trousers. While officers of the regiment employed civilian servants, this man is indeed a chasseur. It’s possible he is simply a regular trooper, tending to his horse. He may be an orderly, as the British would say, a “batman,” who is caring for an officer’s horse.
Writing Ideas
So, what happens from here? Once the day’s orders are communicated, where are the officers off to? Perhaps a staff meeting, or back to their offices. Clearly the officer on the left isn’t involved with either the NCO or the chasseur. There’s all sorts of possibilities here. They’re off to the same meeting. Maybe the officer needs a private word with his colleague, once the assignments are issued. Is it business-related? Personal? Is their relationship more involved than just members of the same regiment?
Go for it, writers!
by nolahistoryguy | Aug 31, 2026 | Patreon
These wonderful paintings by Lucien Rousselot are great #writingprompts.
Napoleonic paintings by Lucien Rousselot
Beginning next month, we’re presenting the art of Lucien Rousselot. He was a brilliant artist and “uniformologist.” While he painted the French Army through many periods, much of his work focuses on the uniforms of Bonaparte’s army.
Rousselot was quite prolific. So, we’re starting with some of the most exciting uniforms of the period. This collection, Napoleon’s Elite Cavalry: Cavalry of the Imperial Guard, 1804-1815, contains ninety-one plates of Bonaparte’s bravest and best-dressed officers and troops.
#WritingPrompts
These illustrations offer so much inspiration for not only analysts and military historians, but writers as well. Rousselot presents these soldiers in active scenes. They’re not merely standing still, posing for the artist. The plates offer the writer context, from riding in the field to walking in the park with a young lady on the arm. We see not only campaign uniforms but court and evening wear. We see combinations of officers, NCOs, and troopers. Rousselot gives us nobles on down to the guys in the line.
NOLA Connection
So, these plates depict French soldiers. What’s the tie-in to New Orleans? Consider two possibilities. First, we know a number of members of Napoleon’s army made their way to America, particularly New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. C.S. Forester even included a story about an encounter (after the war) between Horatio Hornblower and soldiers of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard, in “Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies.”
The second possibility ties into the origin story of the Napoleon House Restaurant in the Vieux Carré. You may know the story, how Nicholas Girod, mayor of New Orleans in 1814, and his friends took Bonaparte’s defeat and exile to Elba badly. They always said that someone should rescue the Emperor from Elba and bring him to New Orleans. Girod promised to give Bonaparte the family home, located on Chartres and St. Louis Streets. Bonaparte is part of the city’s romantic past.
Our approach
We’ll present Rousselot to you once a week. Posts will appear on NOLA History Guy blog, Patreon, and Substack, Eloquent Profanity, and the Book of Zucker. Since we consider these writing ideas, that’s the angle you’ll read. If you find the plates appealing from a technical or historic perspective, comment or email us and let’s discuss!
by nolahistoryguy | Aug 31, 2026 | Patreon
The original Church of St. Louis in New Orleans. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1788.
Changes to our Substack and Patreon
Comus costume sketch, 1909
We’ve been sharing NOLA History Guy content to other platforms for some time. Going on Patreon was a fun exercise in WordPress configuration, because there’s a plugin that connects the sites. One of the features of the plugin I particularly like is that it allows access to the “paid” portion of a post to a level it calls “any patron.” That means someone can sign up for NHG on Patreon, pay a dollar for one month, drop the payments, and still be listed as a “patron.” I just love that! It means teachers in particular can get easy access to all the content. (I’ve also said that, if you’re a teacher and you’ve ponied up a dollar or more, come buy the coffee shop and I’ll buy you a beverage.)
As for Substack, it’s always been free. I started with mirroring the weekly newsletter there. Now, we’re adding a $1/month paid tier.
With both platforms now having a paid tier, We’re going to have content exclusively for subscribers. We’ll be introducing our series on the Napoleonic-period of Lucien Rousselot this afternoon. The first post will drop on Tuesday. Additionally, we’ll have New Orleans history stuff, seriously geeky fun stuff, for subscribers.
The Podcast
Boyd Cruise painting of The Louisiana State Armory, on St. Peter Street, behind the Cabildo. It was the subject of Podcast 45.
We tried a more-exclusive podcast tier a while back, and it flopped. The re-boot will be a bit different. Instead of a higher-level tier subscription required for bonus pod episodes, we’re going to offer those eps via Patreon and Substack to subscribers at the $1 level. If you want to donate more, you can subscribe at the $5/month level. Once we get a dozen or so higher-tier subscribers, we’ll add content for those folks. The rationale here is simple. I’m pretty lazy as a rule, but if y’all are putting fifty bucks or more a month in my pocket, I’ll get off my butt.
We’ll start exclusive podcast content with deep-dives into topics from the free, long-form pods. For example, we did the August “Third Thursday” talk at the Jefferson Parish Library on the art of Boyd Cruise. There were a bunch of his paintings in the talk, which we’ll expand on in, say, 20-minute talks. We’ll also go back to the content in the books and go deeper on specific people, places, and topics that maybe only got a hundred or so words for the caption.
Let’s go!
St. Aloysius College, Barracks and Chartres, 1869
I’m confident that this model, based on $1/month, will work. As I’ve said in the past, I’ve seen what y’all pay five bucks or more a month for, and what we offer here clears that bar. If you have any questions about all this, give me a shout via email, edward@nolahistoryguy.com, or stop by when I’m staffing the Information Desk at the Cabildo.
by nolahistoryguy | Aug 6, 2026 | Patreon
Third Thursdays at the Jefferson Parish Library
In This Issue
-
A Little History… – Our feature story
-
Notes from the Lakefront – Updates
-
Ad of the Week – advertising blasts from the past!
-
How you can help NOLA History Guy – Things you can do right now!
-
NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge – Exercise your imagination!
A Little History… Restaurant de la Renaissance, 1904
William Woodward painting
”Restaurant de la Renaissance,” by William Woodward, 1904. From the HNOC record for the painting:
View of Chartres Street from corner of Wilkinson Street, (formerly Jefferson), looking toward Jackson Square. At right, two story building houses a restaurant and cafe owned by August Pouy. The Cabildo and Saint Louis Cathedral are visible in the background
There’s no entry on this building from the VCC in the Collins Diboll database, so we’ll come at this painting from a more cultural/romantic side. HNOC’s Blog, “First Draft,” offered an article, Views of the Vieux Carré, on 15-December-2025. The article features Woodward’s painting and this passage from the diary of William C. Ordiorne in 1933:
“I dined at a score of different restaurants . . . none of the great and famous ones. I couldn’t afford them. But the standard of good cooking is higher in New Orleans than in the North. There were little French restaurants which served wine with the dinner, just as in France. Oysters, fresh from the bayous, were ten cents a dozen over the bar . . . and how delicious they were! I made the acquaintance of many dishes new to me, such as shrimp remoulade, jamalai, the famous New Orleans risotto, full of shrimp, peppers, and other mysterious ingredients.”
The smaller restaurants captivated the writer then, just as our “neighborhood” places draw diners in nightly today. While the prices may be higher, particularly the oysters, the sirens’ call of Shrimp Remoulade and other seafood dishes can still be heard.
As the Sicilian influence hit the Quarter in particular in the early part of the Twentieth Century, little French-style places changed their branding from “French” to “Creole-French,” to, in many cases now, just “Creole.” Instead of that interesting risotto described by the writer, “seafood pasta” dishes that swap the rice for fettuccine or linguini are standards on the menus of modern restaurants.
Wilkinson Street
Woodward paints the Restaurant de la Renaissance from the Uptown/Canal Street side of Chartres and Wilkinson Streets. He captures the half-block of Chartres leading up to St. Peter Street, then the Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral. With the exception of the street activity, the scene hasn’t changed all that much. The building at 620 Chartres is still a restaurant, Doris Metropolitan. When I’m leading guests on an “upriver” French Quarter Walking Tour, we go from Jackson Square, up Decatur Street for half a block, then turn up Wilkinson. That brings us right to this location, where we stand directly in front of the origin point of the Great Fire of 1788. I always suggest to guests they go down the passageway of Sylvain Restaurant and peek into the courtyard (hopefully some of them are enticed to come back for dinner). After stopping for a moment on this corner, we onto Chartres and continue in the opposite direction, with more stories about food, riverboats, Sicilian taverns, and more.
Book @NOLAHistoryGuy To Speak At Your Event!https://facebook.com/groups/nolauncovered
Notes from the Lakefront
why the lakefront?
Family time in D.C.
We’re up in Arlington, VA, for a couple of days. My firstborn lives here with his wife and their now-15-month-old son. So, we come up as often as we can to visit and watch him grow.
This trip, my boy asked if there was anything in particular we wanted to do/see, and I suggested the National Air and Space Museum, the original, just off the National Mall. The museum is wrapping up some extensive renovations, and has re-opened enough of the space to make the trip fun. The museum has a large exhibit on NASA’s Apollo missions. Two of the main artifacts are the Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, and the spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the surface of the Moon. As a kid, I was very invested in the Apollo programs. As a kid from New Orleans, I was very proud that the massive Saturn-V rocket boosters which propelled those astronauts to the moon were built in New Orleans, at Michoud.
Vintage Ad of the Week
“Commander’s is the sauciest” — Ad for Commander’s Palace restaurant, Washington Avenue at Coliseum Street in the Garden District, in the Times-Picayune, 6-August-1969.
How You Can Help NOLA History Guy
Things you can do RIGHT NOW to help us out!
-
Buy my books! Edward Branley is the author of six books on New Orleans history. They’re available from local booksellers and all the usual online suspects.
-
Book NOLA History Guy to speak at your event – Edward speaks to groups ranging in size to local groups like Kiwanis and Rotary to major conventions and trade shows.
-
Buy me a Coffee on Ko-fi dot com. I just love this concept as a way to say thank you/tip creators you enjoy. Our idea of monetization is buying books and having us come to speak. If you see me at a coffee shop, stop and say hi. Otherwise, I’ll raise coffee cup to you if you treat me.
-
Become a patron. Yes, we’re on Patreon. A lot of creators use the platform for direct monetization, and that’s great for them. We don’t have “exclusive content” for patrons. Still, if you think our history stuff is worth a dollar a month, go join!
Books by NOLA History Guy!
NOLA Six Word Writing Challenge
In six words or less, write a story about this image. (@ladylunanola photo)
Post your story to NOLAHistoryGuy.com on BlueSky, or to New Orleans Uncovered on Facebook. You can also email yours to nolasixwords@nolahistoryguy.com.
What’s this all about?
by nolahistoryguy | Jun 13, 2026 | Patreon
I’m not big on saying I’m an Ally
Saying you’re an ally, particularly during June, Pride Month, is an odd flex. I don’t understand why folks feel the need to declare they’re not gay. Here are some reasons I don’t say ally:
It gives “no homo” vibes.
Self-employed folks in particular always seem to be afraid they’ll lose a potential market or segment of their client base, so they want to please everyone. Say you’re an ally, you think queers will respect you. It goes an extra step, though. You’re telling people who don’t like queers that you’re straight. The ally wants to straddle the fence, when they’re really standing with the straights, all-in.
You’re not going to impress the bigots.
There’s really nothing you can do to win over conservative bigots once you acknowledge that queers exist. They want nothing short of obliteration for queers. When Daesh (commonly referred to as ISIS) had greater influence in the Middle East, the easiest way for them to eliminate enemies was to declare them to be homosexuals. Then they could throw them off fifty-foot walls to the ground. While American homophobes usually don’t go that far, they stand with the sentiment. If you think declaring you’re straight helps you keep or attract business from these people, you’re delusional.
Queers aren’t going to hit on you.
Saying you support queer rights isn’t a declaration of availability. You don’t have to say “no homo” — the homos know who is and isn’t. If you want to date someone who is queer, conversation, body language. and overall attitude will communicate your interest. Otherwise, fear not.
You discourage and disparage queer kids.
Declaring you support queer kids while at the same time making it clear you’re straight is a mixed signal. The teen exploring their sexuality looks and listens, wondering why you have to distance yourself from what they are. Offer unequivocal support to young queers.
“Allyship” is a great way to ignore Trans people.
Even among liberals, even among some queers, transgender people are still discriminated against. Declaring you’re an overall ally enables one to skirt addressing the issues surrounding the trans community. There’s tons of shit trans folks have to endure, and all too many straight allies would rather wash their hands of any involvement in making life easier for them.
You’re here. They’re queer. Love and support them. It’s not about you.
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