Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz

The Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz is a unit of Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC), part of Tulane University Libraries. To learn about visitor information, research support, duplication and permissions, teaching and instruction, loans for exhibitions, and more, view the TUSC homepage at library.tulane.edu/tusc.  

The Hogan Archive supports the research and study of New Orleans music and culture of the late 19th and 20th centuries forward. It was founded in 1958 when Richard B. Allen, a Tulane University graduate student, embarked on a jazz oral history fieldwork project for his thesis. Dr. William Ransom Hogan, the chair of the Department of History at the time, wrote the initial Ford Foundation grant proposal that funded the project. Tulane administered the formation of the Archive of New Orleans Jazz as part of the Department of History. In 1965, the Archive became a department within the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library and in 1974, following Dr. Hogan’s death, it was renamed the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive. It was renamed in 2020 to the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz. To learn more about the name change and new collection development policy, please see the 2020 news release

Hogan holdings include archival collections, business papers, personal papers, sound and video recordings, sheet music, photographs, ephemera, and various printed materials. The musical cultures of New Orleans represented include, but are not limited to, jazz, ragtime, rhythm and blues, blues, gospel, Creole songs, and other forms of Black American popular music. All materials highlight the culture and communities of the New Orleans region from a music-based perspective, but also comprise multidisciplinary subjects such as American history, ethnic studies, gender studies, architecture, sociology, race and representation, anthropology, cultural studies, marketing, media, and much more.

For questions and assistance, please contact TUSC Research Services at specialcollections@tulane.edu or Hogan Archive curator Melissa A. Weber at mweber3@tulane.edu.
 

Little Rascals Brass Band at the 10th Anniversary Parade of the Rebirth Brass Band, 1993, New Orleans. Photographer: John McCusker. Hogan Jazz Archive Photography Collection
Little Rascals Brass Band at the 10th Anniversary Parade of the Rebirth Brass Band, 1993, New Orleans. Photographer: John McCusker. Hogan Archive Photography Collection, Tulane University Special Collections.

Hogan Archive Holdings
Hogan Archive News

Updated February 22, 2024

Hogan Archive Publications

The Jazz Archivist
All back issues of The Jazz Archivist are available online via Tulane University Digital Collections.

From 1986-2019, The Jazz Archivist (ISSN: 1085-8415) served as a newsletter and non-peer reviewed journal covering jazz and New Orleans music. Published by the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive, the publication featured articles and updates written by Hogan Archive staff, as well as independent researchers and scholars. The Jazz Archivist ceased publication after its 2019 issue.