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. To learn more about donating materials, view the TUSC Collection Development Policy.
History
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.
About
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 New Orleans and its immediate surrounding regions 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.
Contact
For questions and assistance, please contact TUSC Research Services at specialcollections@tulane.edu or Hogan Archive curator Melissa A. Weber at mweber3@tulane.edu.
- Archival collections and papers of primary source materials, whose finding aids can be searched online
- Digital collections, all accessible online:
- Hogan Archive oral history collection
- Hogan Archive photography collection
- Laurraine Goreau interviews and recordings
- Louisiana sheet music collection
- Lynn Abbott interviews
- Ralston Crawford collection of New Orleans jazz photographs
- The Legend of the Dew Drop Inn documentary interviews by Julia Dorn
- Vernon "Dr. Daddy-O" Winslow broadcast recordings
- Oral history interviews with musicians, family members, and observers that document the stories surrounding the emergence of jazz in New Orleans from the late 19th century forward. Including over 2,000 reels of taped interviews, the Hogan Archive holds the largest collection of jazz oral history extant. Digitized oral histories represent 1948-1997, and can be accessed online via the Tulane University Digital Library.
- Vertical files with data on people, bands, discographies, and a wide variety of New Orleans music-related subjects
- More than 40,000 sound recordings including vinyl LPs, 45s, and 78s, as well as cassette tapes, CDs, reel-to-reel tapes, and cylinders that capture studio and live performances
Updated March 12, 2025:
- Workshop 3/19: In the Archives: Researching and Learning with Primary Source Materials about New Orleans
- Missed the Intentional Listening: Mardi Gras Indians event on February 17? Access the Guide to Materials
- Newly discovered prints added to digitized Ralston Crawford collection of New Orleans jazz photographs
- The Intentional Listening Series celebrates Mardi Gras Indians, February 17
2024: - Tulane Bands and TUSC collaborate to celebrate Louis Prima
- OffBeat, Inc., records are open for access
- Open for research: Clyde Barbour photographs of Preservation Hall and New Orleans, and Yuki Ito photographs of Mardi Gras Indians
- Open for research: Austin M. Sonnier Jr. papers
- The Prima Memorial Series presents 'Louis Prima: The Wildest' screening, October 22
- The Prima Memorial Series presents Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr., September 19
- Open for research: The George G. and Jacqueline V. Mallinson collection
- Open for research: New Orleans Music and Entertainment Association records and Thomas A. Sancton collection of New Orleans jazz oral histories
- Hogan Archive acquires Austin M. Sonnier Jr. papers
- Scott Jordan interview collection is open for access
- Hogan Archive in the community – Small Center, IAMLA, and Dew Drop Inn
- The Jules J. Paglin collection of OK Group records is open for research
- Tulane University Special Collections materials spotlighted at historic, newly reopened Dew Drop Inn
- Tulanian magazine spotlights the Louis Prima papers at the Hogan Archive
- TUSC's Prima Memorial Lecture Series with musicologist Dr. Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr. to be rescheduled
2023: - Video: "Jivin' with Dr. Daddy-O: Race, Radio and Representing Black in Jim Crow New Orleans"
- Event: "Jivin' with Dr. Daddy-O: Race, Radio and Representing Black in Jim Crow New Orleans"
- Hogan Archive acquires Scott Jordan interview collection
- The Legend of the Dew Drop Inn documentary interviews are digitized and open for research
- New video revisits 2022 exhibition about the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
- The Louis Prima collection is open for research at Tulane University Special Collections
- Newly processed collection of pianist Don Ewell highlights traditional New Orleans jazz
2022: - Hogan Archive acquires Thomas A. Sancton collection of New Orleans jazz oral histories
- Hogan Archive acquires a new archival collection documenting New Orleans jazz elders in 1972
- Tulane library to host new exhibit celebrating Jazz Fest's first decade
- Vernon “Dr. Daddy-O” Winslow Broadcast Recordings are newly digitized for online access
2021: - Tulane University Special Collections acquires Offbeat Inc. materials
- The Laurraine Goreau Interviews & Recordings and Lynn Abbott Interviews are now digitized
- The acquisition of Julia Dorn’s The Legend of the Dew Drop Inn documentary
- Tulane University jazz archive gets new name and expanded mission
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.