In New Orleans, history suffuses everything. The architecture, cuisine, music, and mannerisms of its people are products of 300 years of history, full of booms and busts, triumphs and tragedies. When visiting New Orleans, don’t just enjoy those 300 years as a romantic backdrop for your holiday: make them real. The Historic New Orleans Collection, a museum, research center, and publisher located in the heart of the French Quarter, is the only place to learn about the city’s full, rich history from its beginnings as deltaic swampland to its thriving present. With four exhibition spaces dedicated to history and art, as well as a house museum and beautiful courtyards, a research center free and open to the public, and a shop filled with works by local artists, The Historic New Orleans Collection is unmissable.
THNOC’s Louisiana History Galleries, a permanent exhibition free to visitors and available for self-guided tours, surveys the entire range of the city’s development, from its founding and colonial periods, to its assimilation into the United States, Civil War years, and Reconstruction troubles, to its perseverance in the 20th and 21st centuries through the devastating floods of 1927 and 2005. Along the way, visitors will learn how these historical events shaped the distinctive culture of the city, from jazz music and street parades to coffee with chicory and po-boy sandwiches. Above all, guests will come to know the people of New Orleans throughout the years—French diplomats, enslaved Africans, American businessmen, Irish and German immigrants, Haitian refugees, Creoles, free people of color, and countless others.
Aside from the Louisiana History Galleries, THNOC invites lovers of fine and decorative arts to visit its spaces dedicated to antique portraits and Louisiana art. Other rotating exhibitions have featured historical and contemporary photography, avant-garde books and print materials, and audio and video of some of the city’s most important musicians. New Orleans is a city of visceral delights, but only a visit to the Historic New Orleans Collection can imbue every meal, every song, and every sight with the meaning of the past.
THNOC's flagship location at 533 Royal St.
The elegant counting house at 533 Royal St.
Local
Eat and Drink
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See and Do
- The Historic New Orleans Collection New Orleans (0.0 miles) - In New Orleans, history suffuses everything. The architecture, cuisine, music, and mannerisms of its...
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Shopping
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