 |
|
|
History of the Louisiana Historical Society
Paper read by Mr. W. 0. Hart,
March 23rd, 1920.
The Louisiana Historical Society was organized on January 15, 1836, and its first president was Henry A. Bullard, then an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana. In 1846 the society was reorganized, among the reorganizers being such well known names as Charles Gayarre, Alfred Hennen, and Francois Xavier Martin, who was elected its president, but died the same year, and Judge Bullard was again elected president, serving until 1860, when by Act No. 6 of that year, approved January 16, the society was incorporated by the State, and Charles Gayarre elected president.
The first recognition of the society by the State of Louisiana was by Act No. 189 of the General Assembly of 1848, approved March 16, by which the Secretary of State was authorized and required to deposit with the society all public documents, journals, reports of decisions of the Supreme Court, and publications received from Congress and other States, but the war soon breaking out and reconstruction following, the society was practically dormant until 1877, when it was reincorporated by Act No. 108 of the extra session, approved April 30, among the incorporators being such well-known names as Charles Gayarre, Francis T. Nicholls, Louis A. Wiltz, Robert M. Lusher, E. T. Merrick, W. W. Howe, George W. Cable, B. J. Sage, H. B. Magruder, F. L. Richardson, Joseph A. Quintero, Alexander Dimitry, H. Dickson Bruns and William B. Egan, all of whom have now passed away except George W. Cable, who made an address before the society at its March, 1915 meeting, and Mr. Frank L. Richardson, an eminent member of the Bar of Louisiana.
Charles Gayarre continued as president until 1888, when Judge Howe was elected, serving until 1894, when Prof. Alcee. Fortier became head -of the organization and remained its president until 1913, during which time the organization took on new growth and development,, and from eightv-eight members which it then had, has increased until it now has nearly eight hundred on its rolls. There would be at least five thousand members if the people of this State knew what the society has done to preserve the history and traditions of Louisiana.
Prof. Fortier retired from the office of president in 1913, dying the following year. Mr. Gaspar Cusachs, one of the best known collectors of historic material in the country, became president in 1913 and was re-elected unanimously in 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1920, and is carrying out the work of the society on the lines so well laid down by Prof. Fortier.
The other officers of the society at this time are: John Dymond, first vice-president; Bussiere Rouen, second vice-president; Judge Henry Renshaw, third vice-president; Miss Grace King, recording, secretary; Mrs. H. H. Cruzat, corresponding secretary and librarian, and W. 0. Hart, treasurer.
Membership in the society is open to ladies as well as gentlemen, and about one-fifth are ladies, and there are a few members outside of the State and a few within the State outside of the city of New Orleans. As the society is a State one, and the only historical society but one in Louisiana, the membership throughout the State ought to he larger than it is.
During the administrations of Prof. Fortier and Mr. Cusachs, the society entertained three presidents of the United States, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Taft, besides numerous Governors, foreign diplomats, members of Congress, Cabinet officers, judges, members of the army and navy, and distinguished men in all walks of life from all parts of the world.
The three great celebrations organized by the society and carried out to successful culmination were the one hundredth anniversary of the transfer of Louisiana from France to the United States in 1903, the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of Louisiana as a State into the Union in 1912, and the one hundredth anniversary of the battle of New Orleans and the one hundred years of peace which began with the end of that battle, in 1915.
All of these celebrations were by virtue of acts of the General Assembly of Louisiana, which, realizing the importance of the events to Le celebrated and desiring the celebrations to be in competent hands, placed the entire charge thereof with the Louisiana Historical Society. At each of these celebrations there was present a personal representative of the President of the United States, respectively, Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson. Each celebration was carried out with historical accuracy and detail (with the exception that there was no reproduction of the battle of New Orleans) of the events which were being celebrated. The committee in charge of the last celebration believed that that was not the time to reproduce war scenes, and therefore all reference to the battle as such was eliminated.
In the celebration in 1903 Gov. W. W. Heard took a prominent part, and in the celebration in 1912 Gov. J. Y. Sanders was the central figure, and in the celebration of 1915 Gov. L. E. Hall was the most prominent Louisianian participating in the ceremonies.
The Louisiana Historical Society was the first to suggest the proper celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the Founding of the city of New Orleans and of erecting in connection therewith if at all possible or at least, the laying of a cornerstone of a monument to Bienville in 1918. A committee of the Society was appointed but subsequently the matter was taken in charge by the city of New Orleans and a committee appointed by the Mayor mostly of members of the society; but on account of the United States becoming involved in the great World War, the committee, though it had many meetings and mapped out an elaborate program, gave up the idea of the celebration; the society, however, feeling that so important an event should not be overlooked, accordingly on December 20th, 1918, with proper ceremonies in the Cabildo, fittingly celebrated this great bicentennial.
A few years ago Miss Ida Barrow, teacher of drawing in the public schools, suggested to the Mayor that New Orleans should have an official flag; the Mayor took kindly to the idea but at the request of the Society, he deferred action until the bicentennial year when a committee was appointed to consider the subject. Of this committee, Mr. W. J. Waguespack, a very active member of the Society, was the chairman and all the other members but one., were members of the Louisiana Historical Society; nearly three hundred designs were submitted to the committee and the one finally selected makes the flag of New Orleans one of the most beautiful in the world. The design was adopted by the City of New Orleans on February 5th, 1918, and the first flag was raised over the City Hall on the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of New Orleans, February 9th, and while under the auspices of the City Committee before referred to, the Louisiana Historical Society took an active part therein.
A committee having been sent by the city of New Orleans to France to represent New Orleans in the ceremonies in that country in October, 1917, preliminary to the ceremonies of 1918, on the very day the celebration was had in Paris, a celebration was had in the City Hall in this city in which the Society took an active part.
The celebration of 1903 represented a colonial change; the celebration of 1912 commemorated a State change; the celebration of 1915 commemorated a national event, and these three considerations received particular recognition.
The different celebrations above referred to also received national recognition by action of Congress, and while the ceremonies on January 8, 1915 were going on in the city of, New Orleans, Judge J. R. Thornton in the United States Senate and Hon. H. Garland Dupre, (a member of the Society) in the United States House of Representatives were making speeches descriptive of the event and of the celebration, and these speeches, through the Congressional Record and through the press, were scattered broadcast.
The crowning event of the celebration of 1903 was the colonial ball; of 1912, the State banquet, and of 1915, the international peace banquet, pronounced by all who attended to be the most brilliant function of its kind ever given in the city of New Orleans. The New York Outlook in so describing it added, "and this, too, in a city famed for its great banquets."
It was intended by the American Peace Centenary Committee, the British Peace Centenary Committee, and the Canadian Peace Centenary Association that the 100 years of peace should be elaborately celebrated throughout the English-speaking world, preliminary thereto beginning at Ghent, Belgium, December 24, 1914, of the one hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, but the war in Europe destroyed these plans, and the eyes of the world became centered on New Orleans, where the great peace celebration of the world took place. The King of England designated a personal representative, and as gold medals by the society were presented to him and to the representative of the President of the United States, these two gentlemen, T. H. Carew-Hunt and Arthur J. Peters, clasped hands as the band played "Hands Across the Sea" amid the cheers of the hundreds of thousands who witnessed the event on the battlefield of Chalmette.
The society has issued many publications which are valuable additions to the history of not only Louisiana, but of the United States and of the world, and the same are sought for by librarians, historians, and public men everywhere.
In the great Fourth of July celebration held at the City Hall in Lafayette Square in 1918, at the request of the President of the United States, the Society took a prominent part and in consideration thereof the committee in charge presented to the Society the flags of the world, used during the. celebration, fifty-three in number and at the celebration on the same day in 1919, additional flags were presented to the society, so that it now has a collection of seventy-five embracing the flags of all the nations of the world except the enemy nations, Austria, Germany, Hungary and Turkey; other flags represent the potential nations, such as Arabia, Finland, Palestine, Siberia and Syria, the new nations Jugo-Slav, Poland and Slavonia, the small nations, Albania, Andora, Luxembourg, Monaco, and San Morino, and Australia, Canada, India, Ireland and New Zealand, the Betsy Ross Flag, which was the first flag of the United States, the Red Cross flag, donated by the New Orleans Unit and the flag of the Sons of the American Revolution, donated by the New Orleans Chapter. Some of these flags were also donated to the Society by Mr. Saltus hereafter referred to as the gentleman through whom the statue of Joan of Arc was received bv the Society. The flags are prominently displayed in the Cabildo and appropriate ones are hung from the windows of the Cabildo on National and International holidays and are loaned bv the Society to schools, patriotic and historical organizations for entertainments given by them from time to time.
Many minor celebrations have been conducted and participated in by the society, among them being the Charles Gayarre centennial; the Judah P. Benjamin centennial in 1911; in connection with other patriotic organizations of this city the one hundredth anniversary of steamboat navigation on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in 1910; the Thackeray centennial celebration, and the fiftieth anniversary of his visit to New Orleans, when a dinner was given in the same room in Boudro's at Milneburg where Thackeray was entertained fifty years before; the semi-centennial celebration of the unveiling of the Henry Clay monument in 1910 with the Kentucky Society of Louisiana, and the participation by the society with other organizations in many other patriotic events.
It was at the suggestion of a member of the society that the public school gymnasium in the Third District was named Louis A. Wiltz, after the Louisiana Governor and to it the societv presented his portrait.
The society succeeded in having' Galvez honored by the Cumberland Telephone Company in naming one of its exchanges after the intrepid Spanish soldier and with appropriate ceremonies his picture was presented by the society to the exchange.
A very important act of the societv took place on April 22, 23 and 24, 1915, when it entertained as hosts the Mississippi Valley Historical Association, and with this association the society hopes in time to erect on the banks of the Mississippi river a monument to La Salle.
The birthday of the Marquis de Lafayette, September 6th, was splendidly observed in the Cabildo in 1917 and again in 1919, the features of the first named day being the address by judge Henry Renshaw, a member of the society, on Lafayette's Visit to New Orleans in 1825, and the presentation to the Society by Miss Anna 0. King, also a member of the Society and Regent for Louisiana of Mount Vernon the home of Washington, of a picture of the Key of the Bastile, which hangs in Washington's old home, having been presented to him by Lafayette.
On May lst, 1918, the society was greatly honored by receiving from the Museum of French Art through Mr. J. Sanford Saltus a magnificent bronze equestrian statue of Joan of Arc, a replica reduced in size of the one on Riverside Drive, New York; the statue is mounted on a beautiful pedestal giving its history and containing some of the stones from the castle at Rheims where the Maid of Orleans was confined. Mr. Saltus was present to make the presentation and floral offerings were received from all over the United States, from Europe, and from Porto Rico, from individuals and organizations interested in the history of Joan of Arc.
The Society has presented the flag of New Orleans to many organizations and libraries and when the French cruiser, Jeanne D'Arc was in this city, January 19th, a splendid flag, specially made for the occasion bv Mrs. J. R. Bonneval, the "Betsy Ross" of New Orleans, and who made the first New Orleans flag was presented to the cruiser and as it departed from New Orleans the flag of New Orleans for the first time was flown from the masthead of a vessel.
When the French Foreign Legion was in New Orleans in 1919, the Society participated in the Mayor's reception and presented to the Legion the State Flag of Louisiana, the Mayor at the same time presenting the Flag of New Orleans and a committee of citizens presenting the Flag of the United States and as the Legion marched away these three Flags were given equal honor with the Tri-color of France.
On January 8th, 1918, the Society had an open air celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of New Orleans in Jackson Square and in 1916 and 1917'on the same day had member,-,hip dinners; in 1916 it received from the State of Illinois through Mrs. John B. Richardson, a flag captured from a Louisiana regiment in the war between the States and returned to New Orleans, the same now reposing in the Cabildo.
In 1916, through the efforts of the late Senator Leon R. Smith of Shreveport, there was passed by the General Assembly. Act No.274 under which the Secretary of State prints for the society, a Quarterly journal and its annual when same appears. Of course, considerable difficulty was found in launching the magazine and only seven numbers have been issued to date, owing to the difficulty of getting suitable material and the delays incident to getting the project started; however, the society hopes that during 1921 it will be able to get the Quarterly out regularly every three months. The Quarterly has taken a high rank among historical journals of the United States and even of Europe and so much in demand has it become that the one thousand copies provided by the State are not enough to supply the demands and the society hopes that the General Assembly at its next session will increase the number which the State prints from on e thousand to two thousand.
For many years the meetings of the society were held monthly from November to April, but now they are extended to June and begin again in October, and sometimes meetings have been held in July and September. The society thus hopes to explode the old idea that nothing can be done in New Orleans in summer. The society has had many meeting places--the old St. Patrick's Hall, the old Mechanics' Institute, the Washington Artillery Hall and the new Public Library, but in 1911 it moved into its own permanent quarters, the old Supreme Court room on the second floor of the Cabildo, Chartres and St. Peters streets, perpetually dedicated to the society by the city of New Orleans, and which at the same time dedicated the remainder of the building and the presbytery below the Cathedral to the Louisiana State Museum. It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Charles T. Soniat, for many years first vice-president of the society, that these dedications were made. The museum itself is a child of the society, the idea thereof being first suggested by James S. Zacharie, a very active member of the society, and all of its original officers were members of the society, and since its organization nearly every member of its board has been identified with the society.
In the Cabildo are gathered many priceless relics, books, portraits and manuscripts collected by the society in its nearly a century of existence.
As custodian of the State the society has charge of the early Spanish and French Archives which are now being arranged, catalogued and marked so as to be readily accessible for reference.
Some of these and references to others have been translated and published in the Quarterly and Mr. Henry P. Dart, a valued member of the Society is now preparing for publication, many of the most important of these documents which relate to judicial procedure in French and Spanish times and their publication will not only be valuable and interesting to the Society and historians in general, but also to lawyers, Judges, law professors and law students throughout the world.
Portraits of all the former presidents of the Society hang in its rooms, the one of Prof. Fortier being an artistic oil painting presented to the society during the centennial ceremonies on Jan. 9, 1915, on which occasion for the first time in its history the Supreme Court participated in a public function, giving a reception in its former courtroom to members of the society, the people of Louisiana and the many distinguished guests gathered here for the centennial ceremonies.
The meetings of the Society are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month at eight o'clock in the evenings and are open to the public, no cards or tickets of admission being required. In addition to the papers read and lectures relating to the history of Louisiana, illustrated lectures have been frequently given before the society including especially the Panama Canal, the St. Louis Exposition, the War Lands of Europe, the Birds of Louisiana and the Flags of the World.
The First Meeting of the Louisiana Historical Society
In the Sala Capitular at the Cabildo, New Orleans, November 15, 1911
EDITORIAL NOTE: The Quarterly is enabled through the kindness of H. Gibbes Morgan, Esq., to print the original report made by him to the Louisiana Historical Society on November 1, 1911, on the occasion of the first session of the Society in the Sala Capitular at the Cabildo in New Orleans. This document commemorates an historic event in the career of the Society and in the literary and social life of New Orleans. It tells the store of the struggle to obtain a permanent meeting place for the Society and the date of this removal into our present splendid quarters should be commemorated by preserving in print this contemporary story of the event.-H.[enry] P.[lauche] D.[art]
November 15th, 1911.
Professor Alcée Fortier,
President Louisiana Historical Society.
MR. PRESIDENT:It is with particular pleasure that I respond to your request for a report as Chairman of the Committee, appointed at a meeting of our Society, held during December last main Public Library of this city, to make provisions for the removal of the Society's effects from the old location in the Washington Artillery Hall, to our natural and permanent home, our much coveted "Sala Capitular," in this historic Cabildo.
You will recall that, at one of the Committee's rather informal gatherings, the curator of the State Museum, Mr. Robert Glenk and I, were appointed by yourself to take such steps as we deemed necessary to restore this hall to its Colonial condition, and to arrange, if arrange we could, for the proper installation of the historical collection, now in the custody of the Louisiana Historical Society.
Your Committee, realizing, after most careful reflection, the Society's absolute financial inability to provide for any adequate disposition of the collection actually in hand, reluctantly abandoned any immediate attempt to equip the Hall. At this juncture, the Directors of the Louisiana State Museum, through their President, the Honorable T. P. Thompson, volunteered to assume responsibility of restoring the Hall practically to its original condition, and further offered to transfer the valuable historical relics of the Society from the old and wretched surroundings on Carondelet St., free of cost.
To the astonishment, therefore, of the majority of the members, this old building was phoenix-like transformed. The "Sala Capitular" where we are assembled tonight has received from the Museum Board, through the well directed efforts of Mr. Glenk, every possible attention within its limited means. Carpenters, painters, plasterers, bricklayers, electricians and scores of common laborers were employed, and, within an incredibly short time, the former familiar old Supreme Court Room, the Examination and Consultation Rooms, and the Judges' ante-rooms were transformed into two splendid large halls, running the full length and width of the old building, admirably adapted to the purpose of displaying, temporarily at least, the treasures of our collection.
For your further information, I beg to say that some six hundred dollars has been spent to date, on the renovation of this Hall. The walls, ceilings, windows, within and without, the floors, doors and all other connections, have received many applications of paint and oil; even disinfectants have been freely used, under the skillful direction of Mr. Glenk, and we can assure you that you are presently assembled in a truly germ-free atmosphere.
In the room in our rear, used, as I understand, for many years as an examination room for candidates for admission to the bar, many repairs were necessary; the ceiling in this room was a complete wreck, the walls in not much better condition, and the fireplace and ancient chimney were found in dangerous shape.
Your inspection of what has been accomplished in the way of improving such conditions, is respectfully invited, and we sincerely hope that the efforts of the committee, always under direction of the Curator, Mr. Glenk, will meet with your full approval.
I have spoken only of the actual physical changes and restorations in this hall. Your attention is now called to the array of serviceable wall and table exhibit cases, representing, as they do, a considerable item in the general expenditure.
Mr. President, we are gathered here tonight in a room remarkable for its historic associations, in a room delivered over to this Society by the City Fathers, through the foresight and through the efforts of Honorable Charles T. Soniat, our esteemed First Vice-President. The Hall is ours, but can we support it? ...
[Extract from The Louisiana Historical Quarterly XIV No. 1 (January, 1931), 60-61.
|
|
|
