FOUNDERS OF NEW ORLEANS
AND THE CASKET GIRLS
"To understand Storyville, we must first understand the history of New Orleans."
The museum introduces its guests to Storyville through a full scale map of the United States as divided by its lifeblood and main thoroughfare, the Mississippi River. French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de LaSalle, discovers Louisiana and the city of La Nouvelle Orléans is founded by Jean-Baptiste de Bienville in 1718.
Bienville asks the France to "send me wives for my men, they are running into the woods after Indian girls." Women of dubious morality are shipped to New Orleans, including the infamous casket girls who traveled with their belongings in casket-like trunks, one of which is on display.
WAR, PIRATES & THE SCARLET MIGRATION
With the British charging New Orleans in the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson and the well-known pirate Jean Lafitte are the city's only defense. Artifacts such as swords, a riffle, and a bayonet are encased in displays with a dramatic scene depicted on the giant wall. Jackson wields his sword in an attack on the British soldiers along the banks of the Mississippi, just downriver from the French Quarter in Chalmette.
The war camp at the time included female sex workers who provided functions such as cooking, cleaning, nursing, and companionship to the soldiers. The museum showcases a lifesize camp scene set in the bayou, complete with a male and female figure silhouettes inside the tent, in flagrante delicto.
HOUSE FOR WEARY BOATMEN
With the invasion of the "Kaintuck" Riverboat Men, the early 1800s were a time of large wooden barges or flatboats to transport goods down the Mississippi River. These men, often described as "dirty, noisy and violent rogues and scallywags", enjoyed their time docked in New Orleans by visiting the early Red-Light Districts for the women, whiskey, and gambling.
A full scale theatrical set exhibits what it would have been like for these unruly riverboat men to spend an evening in the "Swamp" Red-Light District in a place called "House for Weary Boatmen" where a scene unfolds of animated poker players converse while a courtesan works the room and a bartender pours the ale.
THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICTS
From the red lanterns hung in fronts of the brothel buildings, areas of town blanketed in fog would glow red like fire in the night. The "Swamp" District, the Gallatin Street District, and Basin Street District became the primary neighborhoods where vice and violence reigned in the late 1800s.
Basin Street would eventually become the primary area known as Storyville where prostitution was legalized. The legendary brothels and bordellos would be captured in musical infamy by the song "House of the Rising Sun" which tells the story of a man whose life has gone astray in a house of ill repute. Inspired by an actual house here in New Orleans, the museum lets guests listen to the song's recording by The Animals while viewing a map of the suspected locations of the real "House of the Rising Sun."
EARLY MARDI GRAS
As the plague of prostitutions continues to spread throughout New Orleans, in 1957 the Loretta Law is passed as a way to target "Lewd and Abandoned Women" who are opening sex trade houses indiscriminately in all areas of the city. As "Storyville" is established, named for Alderman Sydney Story who passed the ordinance, Tom Anderson becomes the "Mayor" of Storyville by opening the Arlington Café where back-room deals can be done in secrecy. Anderson opens other bars in Storyville and befriends policemen and politicians, making him the chief dealmaker in Storyville.
The museum showcases a video of an early Mardi Gras parade and tells the tales of several society scandals that unfolded during the Carnival balls and celebrations.
THE BLUE BOOK
From 1900 to 1917, Storyville is at its peak. A "directory of pleasure" known as the Blue Book is printed and its published pages list madams, their brothels, and hundreds of prostitutes along with full-page advertisements for restaurants, saloons, billiard halls, champagne, liquor, beer, wine, cigars, jewelry, pawn shops, lawyers, druggists, supposed VD cures, and even an ill-advised advertisement for funeral services.
The New Orleans Storyville Museum is proud to present a fully interactive digital display of the Blue Book where you can flip through the pages and read the highlights of what the madams offered at their ornate bordellos.
The museum also features several actual Blue Book copies and an original printing press from that time period.
BASIN STREET BROTHELS
Welcome to a walking tour of Basin Street, circa 1900s. Starting with Storyville's Train Station, guests can take an actual stroll through the streets of old Storyville through the original mural paintings of its architecture. On the righthand side, the Southern Railway Station, also known as the New Orleans Passenger Terminal, is painted in the blueish evening glow of twilight, and on the left is painted a row of infamous Storyville buildings, starting with Tom Anderson's Arlington Annex Saloon, Josie Arlington’s The Arlington bordello, Lulu White’s Mahogany Hall bordello, and The Infamous Emma Johnson & The Studio bordello.
At the end of the Basin Street stroll, guests come upon "Pepper's Parlor", a replica of what an actual Storyville brothel reception parlor looks like. It is here that you will encounter several ghosts who will hauntingly appear in the center of the well-dressed room.
SEX WORK LIFE IN THE CRIBS
The "Cribs" of Storyville were one-room apartments containing a bed, washbasin, dresser, chair, and fireplace, a vast difference from the glitzy brothels of Basin Street. It is here, on Franklin Street, that guests can experience what it would have been like to live and work in a so-called crib.
This is the darker side of Storyville, where we showcase artifacts from a time when sexually transmitted diseases were uncontrollable, unplanned pregnancy created "trick babies" and opium dens made for wide spread drug use among both workers and customers.
On the other end of the display, the nightlife of Franklin Street is depicted in more mural paintings, including Tuxedo Dance Hall, the Big "25" Honky Tonk, the 102 Ranch Dance Hall, and Frank Early's Saloon & Cabaret.
PEEP SHOW MACHINES,
GAMBLING GAMES & ALCOHOL
The New Orleans Storyville Museum is pleased to present to its guests several vintage "Peep Show" Machines from the early 1900s which were popular in penny arcades, amusement parks and saloons for folks to view short, silent moving pictures. Be sure to take a quick peek!
On display, the museum showcases drink prices from the turn of the century, and we offer a video showing a bartender preparing the legendary "Green Fairy" known as Absinthe.
Absinthe was a popular drink during the days of Storyville and has recently become legal again in the US. Several local venues in New Orleans serve the green beverage in cocktails and with its sugar cubes and water drip fountain.
THE MUSIC OF STORYVILLE
New Orleans is known as the birthplace of Jazz, and Storyville was the midwife of this music. Inside the brothels, a piano was played by "Professors" who were talented pianists and singers. The songs were ragtime, blue, Broadway showtunes, and classical opera, and over time, the improvision and impromptu nature of jazz developed in the bawdy dance halls of Storyville.
Great musicians like Louis Armstrong, Sydney Bechet, Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Joe "King" Olivier and Kid Ory played in and around Storyville, and their legendary music still lives on today.
THE E.J. BELLOCQ GALLERY
Much of what the world knows about Storyville is based on the historic photographs of a professional photographer E.J. Bellocq who lived in New Orleans during the Storyville years and as a hobby, captured the images of the working ladies in various stages of undress.
These still images are displayed beautifully in the museum's gallery dedicated to Bellocq and his hauntingly intimate portraits of the girls posing in relaxed, casual manners.
Sit and relax in the gallery on a bench while studying the images. Imagine what life was like at that time. Immerse yourself in this peek behind the proverbial curtain.
STORYVILLE SHUT DOWN /
STORYVILLE IN THE CINEMA
World War I brings Storyville to its knees, no pun intended. The tenderloin district is shut down in 1917, and the back-o-town area of New Orleans has gone through several transformations over the years since the days of the sex trade empire.
The museum dedicates its final exhibition to the movies and television shows that have portrayed Storyville including New Orleans (1947), Pretty Baby (1977), Storyville (1992), The Naked Dance (1998), and the Interview with the Vampire Series – Season 1 (2022).
