A look through the museum’s exhibitions page, from coastal land loss to colonial wars to New Orleans musicians in art
A Vanishing Bounty and an Augmented Revolution: What the Historic New Orleans Collection Has On View in 2026
A look through the museum’s exhibitions page, from coastal land loss to colonial wars to New Orleans musicians in art
By Siobhan ODonnell, historian and pilot, New Orleans
Monday, Archive Day, Rain
Dear diary, I opened the exhibitions page of the Historic New Orleans Collection this morning to plan my week and found a list that deserves its own entry. I give the list as the page gives it, with dates, and I add nothing the page does not say.
The page lists exhibitions on view and upcoming. For most of them it gives no description beyond the title and the dates, so this entry is a map and not a guide.
On View
On view are: American Revolution: The Augmented Exhibition, from 20 March 2026 to 17 January 2027, which covers colonial wars and conflicts; Bunny Matthews: His Life, Art, and Obsessions, from 18 September 2026 to 9 May 2027; and New Orleans Musicians in Art: Selections from the Permanent Collection, from 4 November 2025 to 16 May 2027, which focuses on music and musicians.
Ongoing are Two Portraits by Julien Hudson, French Quarter Life: People and Places in the Vieux Carre, French Quarter Galleries and A Vanishing Bounty: Louisiana’s Coastal Environment and Culture.
A Vanishing Bounty
The page says A Vanishing Bounty addresses land loss and climate change. That is as much as the page says. I take it to be about the coast, since the title says so, and I would like to see it. A historian of New Orleans must always deal with water, because the city is a negotiation with it.
I do not know what the exhibition contains. I would read the labels and report.
Coming Up
Upcoming, according to the page, are Made to Last: Black Craftspeople in Early New Orleans and Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence, both from 25 June 2027 to 9 January 2028, and Cloistered with a Camera: The Photography of Mother St. Croix, from 6 August 2027 to 6 February 2028.
These are dates a year off. I have put them in my diary in pencil, because plans change.
The Free Museum
The Bunny Matthews announcement says admission to the museum is free every day. I know of few places where a person can wander into an archive and a gallery for nothing, and I think it is a thing to celebrate. A historian of limited means counts these as blessings.
Check the museum’s site for hours before you go. I have not seen them.
Reading a List
A list of exhibitions is a snapshot of what a museum thinks its city needs to look at. Colonial wars, coastal erosion, music, craftspeople, a photographer, a cartoonist. There is a pleasing breadth, and one can see the shape of a place in the choices.
I try not to over-read. A list is a list.
Sunday School
After church I told the children’s class about the exhibitions. A small boy asked if there were any dinosaurs. I said no. He asked if there were any pirates. I said that was possible, given the city. He was satisfied.
I will check the museum’s pirate content on my next visit.
Night
The rain has stopped. The streetlights are on. The list is on the fridge.
Goodnight, diary. Water is history.
Questions From Sunday School
Child one: what is augmented? I said the page says only that the revolution exhibition is augmented, and I assume it uses technology, but I do not know. Child two: is the coast really vanishing? I said the page says the exhibition addresses land loss and climate change, and that is as much as I can say. Child three: will it flood? I said I would not know.
I referred them to the museum.
My Reading List
For the next month: the Bunny Matthews book, a local history of the river bend, and a pamphlet on the coast. I do not have titles for the last two, and I will find them in the stacks. A historian’s reading list is a promise that is rarely kept in full and never in order. I keep mine on the fridge, under a magnet shaped like a crawfish, where I can be reproached by it every morning at breakfast time.
Logbook Reading
In the hangar, somebody always has the paper. Ours had the Cebu condo slump in it: empty showrooms in Manila News, paperwork for British pensioners in the London Prat (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and long showings in Bohiney. More where that came from: prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, try The Daily Squib, and the rest of the lot at NewsThump, NewsBiscuit and The Daily Squib.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/