All About History

Outer Journey:

Today we visited the Cabildo (which I believe means City Hall) and the Presbytere (Priest House) museums.  My favorite of the two was the Presbytere museum.

Presbytere museum had the Katrina museum on the first floor and a Mardi Gras museum on the second floor. The Katrina museum was my favorite part. One: I did the e-travel guide on Katrina and it was great to see things that we researched.  Two: It gave a better understanding of exactly how Katrina happened. Three: It made it more real, I was in high school when Katrina happened and it was devastating but I was never able to completely understand the devastation first hand.

A teddy bear that was found among debris

Mardi Gras was on the second floor of the Presbytere Museum.  The Mardi Gras section was amazing with all the different costumes, and the history that is there.  It was amazing to see how their workmanship has changed and has become more detailed. The museum displayed many costumes and masks from over the years.  

After the Presbytere Tour we had some time before heading to our Cabildo tour so I went walking Jackson Square.  I bought a piece of street art of a little voodoo girl.  I had told myself that I was just going to look but I was drawn to that picture.  I was so glad I decided to buy it because the guy selling them stated he is only there on the weekends.

I also went to the 1850’s house and did the tour.  It was self-guided.  It was great to see how the home was set up, but man were those stairs a killer on your legs!!!  It was actually bigger than I thought it would be, and the tour actually continued out into the courtyard.  

Now it was time for the Cabildo.  I was excited to go and check out the museum, but I have to say it was my least favorite. There was a ton of memorabilia and a lot of interesting items.  However, I didn’t feel like there was any consistency or continuity to the setup of the exhibit.  It was nice to read about the history of New Orleans, but by this time we had heard the same history over and over again.  I just felt burnt out at this point.  

Headless Andrew Jackson Statue

After the Cabildo, I came back to the hotel, picked up the room a bit and caught a bit of shut eye to re-energize.  Then it was time for the long awaited Haunted History Tour.  This is one of the tours that I looked forward to since I signed up for the class.  Our guide was Milton’s niece, and she was just as knowledgeable as Milton.  The stories were easy to listen to and interesting.

Overall, it was a good day. The weather was beautiful and my company was wonderful.

Inner Journey:

Easily the most important thing I saw today was the Katrina museum.  This was extremely moving.  There was one room that had different televisions that came on and showed different interviews, pictures, or videos of different responders or evacuations. One of the ones that got to me the most was the interviews done by those who were stranded in the Charity Hospital.  They were stranded there for 5 days, and rescue efforts had begun but stopped because there was believed to be a sniper that was shooting (some accounts recall being fired at, others do not recall this).  Then there was reports that the hospital had already been evacuated, so they started making banners to let people know they were still there.  This also helped boost morale and life the spirits of those there.  I couldn’t imagine being stranded during the storm, especially during these dire situations.

Another piece that really affected me and made me think was a pair of jeans.  This guy who had to travel on his bike through the rising waters, and gusting winds.  On these jeans he wrote his wife’s name and phone number, his blood type, and other important information.  This really brought me to realization of what he was feeling and going through.  I was overwhelmed with feeling of how it must have felt to know you must make this trip, but death or injury was more likely than surviving.  Luckily, he survived and made his destination safely.

Another place that I did enjoy was the 1850 house.  I was really glad that I decided to take this tour on my spare time.  It really brought to light what it would have been like to grow up in this era.  The kitchen was down in the court yard and was barely bigger than closet.  It was crazy to see some noticeable changes from then and now, like chamber pots or dolls with porcelain faces.  The furniture was my favorite part of the rooms because I love antiques, I found out that the bed has no nails in it and is like one large wooden puzzle that intricately goes together.  It is definitely a different way of living than I am use too.