Conducting Research at the Garden Library

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners  (SEAA) is a private research library that is housed in the Southeastern Architectural Archive, a part of Tulane University’s Special Collections Division.  The Garden Library is open to the public Mondays through Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon; and from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m., excluding Tulane University holidays.  Our staffing is limited, so there may be times we need to close the department due to other responsibilities.

The Garden Library is a non-circulating, browsable library consisting of approximately 1,000 published works, and a small collection of archival materials (journals, photographs, seed catalogs). To prevent unnecessary harm to fragile items, we house some of the Garden Library's holdings in the SEAA vault.  Such items will be retrieved for patrons by SEAA staff.  Patrons may consult Garden Library holdings in the reading room of the New Orleans Town Gardeners.

Physical access to the Garden Library is provided through the Southeastern Architectural Archive, located in 300 Jones Hall at 6801 Freret Street.  Bibliographic access to SEAA holdings is provided through Tulane University’s online catalog, and this is the best place to begin research on your topic.  Howard-Tilton Memorial Library and the Louisiana Research Collection (LaRC), located in 200 Jones Hall, also retain strong holdings of published materials related to regional gardening history.

Other tips:

The SEAA maintains supplementary materials to assist researchers in finding information about regional gardening, horticulture and land use.  We retain historic fire insurance atlases, surveys,and a growing collection of trade catalogs and manuals. The archival collections of the SEAA include works by landscape architects and others who developed planting schemes and schedules for the coastal Gulf South region.

Dr. Keli Rylance (krylance@tulane.edu)                       
Head, Southeastern Architectural Archive and School of Architecture Library   
504.247.1806                                       

Kevin Williams (kevinw@tulane.edu)
Archivist, Southeastern Architectural Archive
504.247.1836