Reference

The Southeastern Architectural Archive

The Southeastern Architectural Archive accepts reference questions in person, by mail, telephone and email.  If you are consulting the SEAA in person, it is best to contact us beforehand so that we may best assist you.  The SEAA's vast holdings are divided between two different buildings, with nearly 80% housed in an off-site storage facility.  We respond to all inquiries in the order of receipt, and will acknowledge receipt as soon as we are able to do so.  Please be patient.  Since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the SEAA's annual reference requests have increased by over 300%, with most inquiries coming via telephone and email.

The more background information you have about a property, the better we will be able to assist you.  The SEAA's inventories reflect only what appears on the architectural drawing, normally the name of architect or firm, property owner, building type (commercial or residential), street address, and date.  Sometimes these criteria were not consistently applied, especially for earlier architectural records, and thus having the fullest identification will allow us to search for drawings under various categories.  In many instances, knowing the various business names that operated at a certain street address will prove beneficial, as the SEAA may house drawings related to a later renovation rather than the original construction drawings.

For the greater New Orleans metropolitan area, architects and firms were often commissioned to renovate or preserve earlier structures.  In the process, they frequently gathered together the architectural drawings of their predecessors.  In order to maintain consistent provenance (the history of ownership), the SEAA processes these earlier drawings along with the later drawings, retaining the integrity of the collection.  Because of this pattern of use, which is very distinctive in New Orleans, the drawings of an individual architect may be housed in many different collections.  For example, the drawings of Emile Weil (1878-1945) are located across eleven collections.  Knowing how later architect Edward B. Silverstein (1909-1989) collected and used Emile Weil's work may be extremely beneficial to some researchers.

Please note that there is a difference between reference and research.  We cannot do research for patrons.  Research, writing, and publishing are part of the research process.  As archivists, we will endeavor to assist you in finding the resources you need, but we cannot choose, select, read, translate or interpret our holdings for you. 

For questions concerning our holdings, we suggest that you contact us at 504.865.5699 or by email. For reference requests about Tulane University Library's holdings, please contact the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library Research Services.

The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners

The holdings of the Garden Library are cataloged in Tulane University's online catalog.  For reference assistance, please contact Keli Rylance, Head of the Southeastern Architectural Archive, at 504.247.1806 or at krylance@tulane.edu.