French Quarter Galleries
Explore how the French Quarter went from swampy colonial outpost to the oldest neighborhood in America’s most distinctive city.
520 Royal Street
Seignouret-Brulatour Building
3rd Floor
Included with free museum admission
Situated on a bend of the Mississippi River, just above sea level, the land on which the French Quarter sits was traversed by Native peoples long before the arrival of Europeans and Africans in the early 18th century. The French Quarter Galleries explore how and why this neighborhood developed, how life has been lived here by various populations in different times, and how the legacies that remain shape our lives today.
The story of the city’s original footprint is presented thematically, covering arts, music, and culture; the neighborhood’s various populations; transportation; communications; the slave trade; commerce, and more. Over 300 original artifacts and video and audio content from HNOC’s holdings are complemented by gallery interactives.
One highlight of the exhibition is the immersive film The French Quarter by Night, which is projected on all four walls of the gallery, filling the space with imagery and sound. Viewers are taken on an epic journey over more than 300 years, from a mosquito-infested Mississippi River bank prior to Native American settlement, to a modern night in the midst of Mardi Gras.
New Orleans Mosaic
Get to know New Orleans’s oldest neighborhood in this 35-minute tour of HNOC’s French Quarter Galleries.
Related Daily Programs
French Quarter Closeup: How Slavery Built New Orleans
Join us for this Shortcut Talk that takes an eye-opening look at how the institution of slavery shaped New Orleans.
Exhibition Highlights
French Quarter by Night
Music, revelry, and timeless tales come alive in this immersive experience in the French Quarter Galleries.
Portrait of a Free Woman of Color
This rare 1837 oil painting has a history that, until recently, remained a secret. Visit the French Quarter Galleries to hear her story.
French Quarter at Your Fingertips
Travel around the French Quarter in seconds with this giant interactive map, stocked with information and images about every block of the Vieux Carré.
Aeolian Organ
Experience surround sound like a Roaring Twenties bigwig with HNOC’s fully restored, self-playing pipe organ.
Related Exhibitions
Related Stories
The French Quarter That Made Cosimo Matassa
Before his recording studio changed the course of American popular music, Cosimo Matassa grew up in a teeming French Quarter community that no longer exists.
In Rolland Golden’s Sketchbook, a Changing, Timeless French Quarter
The New Orleans artist’s midcentury sketches of the Vieux Carré form a charming time capsule, showing how much has changed—and how much has stayed the same.
Related Collection Highlights
Homage to the French Quarter
The bohemian scene of midcentury New Orleans comes to life in this exciting acquisition.
Robert R. Livingston’s Louisiana Purchase Letter
The coded midnight letter that foreshadowed the largest land transfer in US history
Related Books
Garden Legacy
by Mary Louise Mossy Christovich and Roulhac Bunkley Toledano
with a foreword by S. Frederick Starr
A Life in Jazz
by Danny Barker
edited by Alyn Shipton, with an introduction by Gwen Thompkins
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