This guide describes collections documenting business history in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the business papers of merchants; manufacturers; planters; factors; commission brokers; and lawyers. It also contains business records of stores; companies; plantations and plantation stores; banks; hotels and inns; restaurants and taverns; and blacksmiths and livery stables. There are also materials on cotton and sugar; national and international trade; and shipping, often by steamboat. Finally, there are materials relating to labor including information about wages, contracts, and conditions.

Formats represented in these collections include account books and ledgers; bills and receipts; business correspondence; and advertising. Most of the collections are from Louisiana and Mississippi, but there are also materials from other areas of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Several collections deal with business relations between the South and the Northeast, and include records of New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Rhode Island, and Connecticut firms.

This guide describes collections documenting the Civil War in the Lower Mississippi Valley, including the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Texas, in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. The guide includes not only materials from the war years (1861-1865) themselves, but also materials from later periods containing manuscript sources for Civil War history. Thus such sources as post-war reminiscences and records of veterans' groups--materials dealing with the war as memory and experience--will be found alongside soldiers' and civilians' letters, diaries, and daybooks from the war itself. In addition, the guide includes collections of papers of Louisiana and other area soldiers who fought outside of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

LSU's holdings of Civil War manuscripts make LLMVC a rich treasure-trove for researchers. Many researchers are studying these documents from new perspectives, to see what they have to tell us about women's experiences on the home front and about Louisiana's African Americans, a significant number of whom fought for the Union. Louisiana played a central role in the war, with the fall of Port Hudson in July 1863 a critical event. Much of the state was long occupied by Union forces, and LLMVC contains the papers of numerous Union as well as Confederate soldiers. Other areas of strength include materials documenting the siege of Vicksburg, the Battle of Shiloh, and the Red River campaign.

This guide describes collections documenting the history of education in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the papers of education officials; college deans; university presidents; professors; principals; teachers; and students. It also contains some records of defunct universities, colleges, and schools. There are a number of collections containing records of teachers' associations and student clubs and organizations.

Records of Louisiana State University, which are part of the LSU University Archives, and the papers of LSU faculty, students, and alumni, are not described in this guide unless they also relate to education apart from LSU. A separate guide to the papers of LSU faculty, students, and alumni is forthcoming. Many University Archives records are described in the University Archives section of the Special Collections web site.

The guide contains school notebooks of elementary and university students; term papers and theses; diplomas; and materials on medical and legal education. There is also information about public, private, and parochial schools; higher education; and school integration. Most of the collections are from Louisiana, but there are also materials from other parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

This guide describes collections documenting literature, reading, and writing in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the papers of authors, novelists, playwrights, poets, journalists, editors, critics, professors, and historians as writers. Materials in the collections include drafts of literary works (novels, short stories, essays, and plays, among other genres) correspondence, diaries, biographical sketches, research materials, galley proofs, and book reviews. "Literary works" as defined here include popular works, poetry transcribed in diaries, and other common efforts at literary expression. Collections dealing with reading and publishing are also described in this guide. Diary-writing in itself (apart from diaries that contain literature or are the diaries of literary authors) does not qualify a collection for inclusion in this guide. Other diaries will be found in the guides to plantations and women's collections. Most of the collections are from Louisiana, but there are also materials from other areas of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

One of Louisiana's strongest traditions is its love of politics. Always colorful, sometimes controversial, the state's political heritage is a rich one. The Long family has been synonymous with Louisiana politics since 1918, with Huey P. Long's election that year to the state's Railroad Commission (now known as the Louisiana Public Service Commission). Since that time, Long and his family have left a significant mark on state and national politics.

This guide includes manuscript resources by or about various members of the Long family. Major collections include papers of Huey Long (governor 1928-1931, U.S. senator 1932-1935); his brother, Earl K. Long (acting governor 1939-1940, governor 1948-1952, 1956-1960); Huey Long's son, Russell B. Long (U.S. senator 1948-1986); and Russell Long's third cousin, Gillis W. Long (U.S. congressman 1963-1965, 1973-1985). Other significant collections contain papers of Carolyn Bason Long (wife of Russell B. Long) and Cathy Long (U.S. congresswoman 1985-1987, wife of Gillis Long). Some papers of Rose McConnell Long (U.S. senator 1936-1937, wife of Huey Long) can be found in the Russell B. Long collection. The various collections include correspondence, speeches, interviews, scrapbooks, photographs, memorabilia, films, videotapes, and other materials.

This guide describes collections documenting the history of medicine in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. It includes the papers of physicians; surgeons; dentists; nurses; medical orderlies; and druggists and pharmacists. It also contains records of hospitals and asylums. There are a number of collections containing records of nursing associations.

The guide also contains remedies and recipes for medical treatments like medicinal tea; materials on medical education; prescriptions; descriptions of medical treatments; and doctors' record books with patient information, treatments, and fees. There are also materials on such diseases as yellow fever and cholera; plantation records that include information on the health of family members and slaves; materials on veterinary medicine; and medical advertisements. Finally, there are materials relating to illnesses and wounds suffered during wartime, particularly during the Civil War, World War I, and World II. Most of the collections are from Louisiana, but there are also materials from other parts of the Lower Mississippi Valley.

This guide describes manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections that document performing arts history. Most of the collections relate to music, with smaller numbers dealing with theater, and a few dealing with dance. Geographically, most of the collections center around Louisiana, with many reflecting the rich cultural history of New Orleans and its diverse French and American cultural streams. Baton Rouge and other cities and towns are documented to a lesser degree. The cultural life of rural Louisiana is reflected in plantation collections containing sheet music, playbills, and other evidence of cultural activity.

The collections include papers of music and drama teachers, composers and writers, and performers. They also contain papers of those who sat in the audiences of musical and other performances and commented on them in letters and diaries, or compiled collections of programs and other ephemera dealing with the performances they witnessed. Finally, they contain papers of researchers who wrote about music and theater history.

Though extensive, the resources listed in this guide form a small part of the totality of materials documenting performing arts history in LSU's Special Collections. An exhaustive search of available inventories of manuscript collections would turn up additional important documentation. The Rare Book Collections contain a wide variety of relevant imprints, and include an extensive database of uncataloged sheet music. Similarly, the Louisiana Collection contains additional imprints on the performing arts, specifically related to Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley. A folder containing several music history finding aids in addition to this one is available at the Special Collections reference desk.

This guide describes manuscript collections documenting plantation society and economy in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU. The plantation records and personal papers of planters, factors, merchants, and others whose livelihood came from plantations provide a wealth of documentation supporting research in plantation economy, slavery, and the social history of Southern landholding elites.

The collections described below touch upon all facets of plantation life. They include the papers of tutors, preachers, lawyers, and doctors who provided services to planters. They include the letters of Northerners who visited plantations in the antebellum period and wrote home about them, and those of Union soldiers who marched past plantations and sometimes plundered them. While the majority of collections are from the prewar years, there are substantial holdings on postbellum plantations as well. The sugar and cotton plantation records in LLMVC are among its most noteworthy and famed collections, and among the earliest collections that LSU acquired.

This guide describes manuscript collections documenting the sugar industry in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU.  The records and personal papers of sugar planters and others whose livelihood came from growing sugar provide a wealth of documentation supporting research in agriculture, sociology, economics, history, and politics.

Researchers should also consult:

Sugar at LSU: Cultivating a Sweeter Future (Online Exhibition)

Documenting Louisiana Sugar 1845-1917

This guide to manuscript resources on the history of transportation in Louisiana includes a wide variety of materials, among them the records of merchants, factors, commission brokers, planters, attorneys, soldiers, ship owners, captains, steamboats, shipping companies, railroad companies, men, women and children travelers; record books; account books; bills of lading, waybills and receipts; log books of steamers; ship registers; travel diaries; and prints of river scenes and steamboats.

Major topics addressed include steamboats, schooners, the slave trade, shipping, and cotton and sugar (sale, trade, shipment and receipt).

The imprint of French culture on Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley has been deep and long lasting. French explorers and colonists were among the earliest Europeans to arrive in the region, beginning in the seventeenth century. Louisiana, named for Louis XIV, belonged to France for much of the 1700s and again from 1800 until it was sold to the United States in 1803. French settlers came to Louisiana both directly from France and indirectly from other areas. The latter included Acadians expelled from present-day Nova Scotia in the mid-eighteenth century and refugees from St. Domingue (present-day Haiti) in 1804. Some followers of Napoleon arrived in Louisiana after their leader's defeat in 1814. Other French immigrants came to Louisiana for a variety of reasons throughout the nineteenth century.

The French-language manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU touch upon all these sources of French cultural influence. This guide to these resources includes descriptions of the papers of early colonists, French-speaking planters and free people of color in the nineteenth century, and residents of cities and towns like New Orleans and Natchitoches. The documents it describes came from farmers and merchants, writers and artists, women and men, the famous and the anonymous.

From the "German Coast" villages, also known as the Cote des Allemands (in present day St. John the Baptist and St. Charles Parishes), to the scattered planters throughout the Lower Mississippi River Valley, German immigrants had a presence in Louisiana and the lower Mississippi River valley that began early in the colonial period. The first Germans moved from New Biloxi to inland points of Louisiana. In 1768, they joined with Acadians from the Cabannocé Post area to march on New Orleans and overthrow Spanish colonial governor Antonio de Ulloa. Their close association with the Acadians led to intermarriage, and many Cajuns came to be known as "German Cajuns" as a result.

The German-language resources in the Lousiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU touch upon a range of topics and dates. The authors of these various papers, letters, notebooks, and other materials were students, planters, merchants, soldiers, and housewives, among other roles. The collections contain descriptions of aspects of the Civil War, plantation life, immigration experiences, business practices, travel accounts, the Nazi regime, and many other subjects. The dates of these materials range from 1776 to 1979.

Since 1519, when the Spanish explorer Alonso Alverez de Pineda led an expedition along the northern shores of the Gulf of Mexico and discovered the mouth of the mighty Mississippi, Spanish culture has influenced Louisiana. The Spanish-language manuscript resources in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) at LSU touch upon all these sources of Spanish cultural influence. This guide to these resources includes descriptions of the papers of early colonists, Spanish-speaking people and free people of color in the nineteenth century, and residents of cities and towns like New Orleans and Natchitoches. The documents it describes came from farmers and merchants, writers and artists, women and men, the famous and the anonymous.

This guide describes manuscript collections documenting African American history in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at LSU. It includes the papers of African Americans and their families; oral histories done with African Americans; and other collections that document African American history in one way or another. In the early period, these collections include documentation of slavery, the slave trade, abolitionism, and apologies for slavery. In the modern period, they include collections that document issues like civil rights, integration, and race relations.

Indeed, the experience of African Americans before and during the Civil War is often documented through the papers of others--among them, planters who bought and sold them as slaves and Union soldiers who commented upon them in letters and diaries. LSU has such resources in abundance. Papers of early African Americans themselves are more difficult to find. But Louisiana and the lower Mississippi Valley had a relatively large population of free persons of color, some of whom did leave papers. They worked as artisans in cities like New Orleans or Natchez, or were planters and even slaveholders themselves. LSU's collections of the papers of free persons of color include the papers of William Johnson of Natchez, now famed as a diarist and commentator on Southern mores.

In 1755, a group of French-speaking people were exiled from their homeland by British military tactics in a part of Nova Scotia then known as "French Acadia". Those Acadian immigrants who relocated to Southern Louisiana adapted to the unique challenges the region provided, to become known as the "Cajuns," an ethnic and cultural group much celebrated, and sometimes misunderstood.

The collection of manuscripts pertaining to the Cajuns that may be found in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) of the LSU Libraries is varied in nature, ranging from the large group of records compiled by the Acadian Handicraft Project to a single French Acadian Music Festival program. Oral history interviews, personal papers, cartoons, photographs, scripts, and other artifacts are present in the manuscripts groups. A range of dates from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries are present (see chronological listing).

This guide describes manuscript collections documenting Jewish history in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley (LLMV) Collections at LSU. It includes the papers of Jews, Jewish organizations, family papers with references to Jews, and other collections that document Jewish history in one way or another. Much information about the life of Jews in the LLMV can be obtained not only from the papers of Jews themselves, but also from references to them by others. Prominent Jewish figures include Isidore Cohn, Simon Gumbel, Samuel Haas, and Joseph Simon.

The collection of manuscripts pertaining to the Jewish that may be found in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC) of the LSU Libraries is varied in nature, ranging from the account books of Jewish merchants to tickets for a charity event benefiting the Jewish Widow's and Orphans Home in New Orleans. Personal papers, newspaper clippings, a diary, a scrapbook, and other artifacts are present in the manuscripts groups. A range of dates from the late eighteenth to the late twentieth centuries are present (see chronological listing).

This guide describes manuscript collections documenting women's history in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at LSU. It includes the papers of women, women's organizations, family papers with significant bodies of women's papers in them, and other collections that document women's history in one way or another.

LSU is fortunate because it collected women's papers very early, perhaps without systematically trying to do so. Women's voices, often buried in plantation collections and Civil War papers, have emerged from obscurity only in recent decades. Researchers coming to LSU can study the letters and diaries of plantation mistresses and teachers, the papers of women writers, and the papers of black women, among other sources. A number of our women's collections have been recently microfilmed by University Publications of America in its series on Southern Women and their Families, making these collections more widely accessible.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was first discovered and named by the French explorer Iberville in 1699, almost three centuries ago. In the eighteenth century, it was ruled successively by the French, British, and Spanish. Incorporated in 1817, Baton Rouge became the state capital in 1849, though it lost that status during the Civil War and would not regain it until 1882.

This guide to manuscript resources on Baton Rouge and East Baton Rouge Parish, of which it is a part, includes a wide variety of materials on the history of the area, among them the papers of Baton Rouge families; the records of businesses and organizations; photographs; newspapers; maps; and oral histories. Although Louisiana State University has been a major part of Baton Rouge for many years, collections relating to LSU are included only if they also relate explicitly to Baton Rouge--for example, the papers of an LSU professor who was also active in community organizations and whose papers documented those organizations. Similarly, the papers of individuals in state government are not included unless they also relate explicitly to Baton Rouge.

The Mississippi River is one of the predominant geographical features of the United States. It simultaneously divides and links the country, demarcating the east from the west while serving as the artery of communication through which has passed the enterprise and the soul of the nation. The Mississippi River has defined the contours of the lands it drains and given shape to the culture, the economy, and the politics of the communities that draw sustenance from it.

For this reason, when LSU history professor Edwin Adams Davis began in 1935 systematically to collect the papers of the families that settled and prospered in the region and the records of the plantations and businesses they built and maintained, he gave no thought to distinguishing among those who were divided by the almost artificial political boundaries of the states. His interest was in documenting and preserving the rich history and culture of the Lower Mississippi Valley. Over the years, the department he founded at LSU has developed into one of the premier repositories for such materials in the nation.

In 1985, Louisiana State University renovated the original library building on its Baton Rouge campus specifically to house its growing collections of manuscripts and rare books. The Department of Archives and Manuscripts was renamed the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections (LLMVC), highlighting the scope of its mission to collect and preserve. It was combined administratively with the collection of printed materials related to the history and culture of the region, creating an integrated center for research.

Preserved in the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections at LSU are more than 5,000 manuscript groups, totaling 25,000 linear feet in extent. The collections include the papers of individuals and families; the records of plantations, merchants, and financial institutions; and the records of political, social, and labor organizations. The most important of these collections relate specifically to the families and enterprises in the Lower Mississippi Valley, from Memphis to New Orleans, and are especially strong in the Natchez, St. Francisville, and Baton Rouge areas. This guide concentrates on collections relating to Natchez and Adams County, Mississippi, as well as to the four Mississippi counties surrounding Adams County: Amite, Franklin, Jefferson, and Wilkinson. All were part of the original Natchez District of the Spanish period, and together they form the southwestern corner of the state, bordering Louisiana on two sides of a triangular geographical area.

This guide to manuscripts collections on the history of New Orleans before 1861 covers topics such as trade and shipping; cotton and sugar; the War of 1812 and the Battle of New Orleans; the Mexican War; and art, opera, plays and literature in New Orleans. It includes the records of residents of and visitors to New Orleans, planters, physicians, attorneys, politicians, soldiers, clergymen, educators, merchants, factors and commission merchants, banks, and businesses located in New Orleans and other states.

Materials represented in this guide include land deeds and sales, slave sales, bills of lading, papers (personal, financial, legal, business), educational materials, personal and business correspondence, diaries, poems, sheet music, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

This guide to manuscript holdings at LSU on the history of New Orleans during the Civil War covers such topics as sea voyages of sailors to New Orleans; slaves as laborers and military recruits; the 1862 fall of New Orleans to Union forces; the Union occupation of New Orleans; and the Port Hudson campaign. Materials include military documents, correspondence, diaries, newspaper clippings, and photographs. These manuscript items include the records of Union and Confederate soldiers, residents of New Orleans, and organizations such as the United Confederate Veterans.

This guide contains descriptions of manuscript materials on the history of New Orleans since the Civil War. These materials include the records of New Orleans residents, physicians, attorneys, politicians, journalists, writers and authors, educators, students, soldiers, clergymen, planters, merchants, factors and commission brokers, businesses, clubs and organizations. The history of New Orleans since 1866 is documented through papers (personal, business, financial, legal, military and government), educational materials, diaries, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, sheet music, poetry, and bills and receipts.

Some of the topics covered by collections described in this guide include the Spanish-American War, World War II, nursing in peace time and in war, music, theater (opera and plays), literature, and travel descriptions.