storytelling

The Historical New Orleans Collection is located in a beautiful old building on Chartres Street in the French Quarter. The research area is on the second floor, a large room with big tables and good light. For most of my adult life I had effortless access to such high end research facilities, and I took them for granted. Now that I live far away from any research library at all, I recognize how fortunate I was.

So I enjoyed my first day in the research library, working with a librarian who really knows her materials and her collection and seems to get as much satisfaction out of bringing me odd and obscure documents as I get from reading them.

If I lived in a city like this one, or in New York or Chicago, I would spend a great deal of time in the wonderful libraries. As it is, I have to make the most of my few days here. Today I read, with great care and reverence, letters written by regular folks who had been near enough to observe the Battle of New Orleans and felt obliged to share what they had seen with relatives who were far away. Brittle paper, faded ink, careful handwriting, and emotion on the page that almost trembles. Tomorrow I will dive into newspapers from 1814 and 1815.

Also, there's a list of another ten books I need to read. The hope is that in a few days time I'll have a better understanding of the way people were living here in the winter of 1814-15. And then the trickle of words that has kept this story moving will turn into a flood.

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