The November 3 Museumgoer story in The New Orleans Advocate | The Times-Picayune visits the new New Orleans Storyville Museum. Story here. Podcast here.
As noted in the column and accompanying audio, the story behind the Storyville Museum deserves its own explainer: Claus Sadlier, the museum’s creator pictured above in a photo supplied by the museum, wrote every word on the museum’s walls (and then some; the museum’s 58 text panels were edited down from 108) and personally oversaw the acquisition of the museum’s historical objects.
A Brother Martin and University of New Orleans graduate, Sadlier went from business school in Indiana to business success, a couple of times, in California. Inventing the insulated paper coffee cup was his Sutter’s Mill moment “at the right time, at the right place, the beginning of the specialty coffee industry,” he said. Yet, “My heart was really always in New Orleans.”
His fortune made, Sadlier moved back about 10 years ago and renovated a few historic homes. “So, again I was more intertwined in the history of the Quarter and reading more and more and then really getting the itch to start a business,” he said.
He toured museums throughout America and abroad and was struck by how contemporary museum exhibits had reached beyond objects in cases and wall text to better engage visitors in narrative. On one return home, he visited the National WWII Museum for the first time in many years, and the vision for a French Quarter museum dedicated to Storyville moved closer to reality.
I toured the museum with Sadlier and you can listen to our walk-and-talk on the podcast. Or just click here:
The museum’s narrative begins with a brisk overview of New Orleans’s founding and early history. Introductory conversation begins at 1:16.
Sadlier discusses the “casket girls” at 9:50 and explains the origin of this object.
The pre-Storyville geography of sin is discussed at 16:20.
A display covering the many possible Houses of the Rising Sun arrives at 21:30.
At 22:35, we pause at this Instagram-ready installation, which explains why the light is red.
At 28:50, the infamous Storyville Blue Books.
The show-stopping walk down Basin Street starts at about 32:30.
The ghostly parlor arrives at 34:50.
A few other Storyville diversions, 41:00.
Jazz in the district, 42:00.
The enigmatic Bellocq portraits, 43:30.
Special thanks to Claus Sadlier, as well as Ellie Rand of Ellie Rand Public Relations for setting up the visit.
The New Orleans Storyville Museum is at 1010 Conti Street. Learn more and plan your visit here.
Thanks as always for reading and maybe listening.
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