Lasting Developments

The Making of New Orleans

We bemoan those glimpses of the city that were denied to us prior to the invention of photography. Though illustrators did their part, the world we would envision gained fullness only once the photographer was able to focus his lens. Pictured on these pages are images of the city with one dating back to approximately 1858. More recent shots show life in the city (much of it fueled by the Work Progress Administration) during the 1930s. For many contemporary New Orleanians life here began anew with the Katrina recovery. But cities grow, and sometimes decline, with starts and stops over decades. We are thankful for those moments when a photographer was nearby.

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