Exhibitions and Public Programming

Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) welcomes students, educators, and learners of all kinds for communal exploration and study. If you would like to partner with us on our outreach activities or learn more about TUSC programming, please contact specialcollections@tulane.edu.

For directions and hours, please see our Visitor Information page. 

Cut from a Different Cloth: Fashion Selections from Tulane Special Collections

September 11, 2025 – May 29, 2026

Free and open to the public.

Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) invites you to join us for our fall exhibition, Cut from a Different Cloth: Fashion Selections from Tulane Special Collections. Curated by Faye Daigle and Kevin Williams, the exhibition considers fashion, clothing, and dress as vital sources for understanding a region’s material history. Items featured offer unique insight into how individuals and communities in New Orleans have used clothing and style to navigate the city’s many cultural scenes, blur social boundaries, and adapt to its challenging climate. From Canal Street department stores to nightclubs, college stadiums, and the city streets during Carnival, New Orleans has served as a unique backdrop for its residents to express their identity, creativity, and community through dress.

On display are architectural drawings and period photographs of dress shops and department store; design drawings and pieces of costume and Carnival jewelry; items related to Tulane campus styles, including cheerleading uniforms; photos of musicians and audiences, including a jacket worn by musician Louis Prima; drag and LGBT material culture; fabric sample books; period ephemera; and more. We hope visitors will be encouraged to reflect on the vital role fashion relics play in preserving a city’s cultural memory and complex social histories. 

Cut from a Different Cloth is on view September 11, 2025 through May 29, 2026 at the Tulane University Special Collections 2nd Floor Gallery, 6801 Freret Street, Joseph Merrick Jones Hall, on Tulane University’s Uptown campus. Hours are 10am–4pm Monday-Friday. Admission is free and open to the public.

For more information contact:
Kevin Williams, Coordinator for Exhibits & Outreach,
Tulane University Special Collections
(504) 247-1836
kevinw@tulane.edu 

Prima Memorial Series presents
Community Day at the Dew Drop Inn with Tulane University Special Collections

Saturday, October 18, 2025
12:00-2:00pm (Doors at 12)
Dew Drop Inn Hotel & Lounge
2836 Lasalle Street, New Orleans
Free and open to all

Enjoy the history of the iconic Dew Drop Inn of New Orleans and its foundational role in the 1950s origins of rock & roll music and learn about Dew Drop Inn archival materials from Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC). The event includes admission to Legends of the Dew Drop: Road to Rock and Roll, a musical show that traces the evolution of the New Orleans sound in rhythm and blues, and a Creole brunch buffet. At this special Community Day edition during American Archives Month, TUSC staff will host an archives activity station. 

Free and open to all. This is a non-ticketed event and registration is not requested or required. Admission and seating are unreserved and open on a first-come basis. Space is limited. Capacity is 75 attendees.

The Prima Memorial Series presents discourse and discussion around American popular music, including its origins in American jazz. The series is presented by the Gia Maione Prima Foundation and Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC), a division of Tulane University Libraries. This event is produced in collaboration with the Dew Drop Inn.

For more info including FAQ, visit library.tulane.edu/dewdropcommunityday.

In the Archives: Mardi Gras and Primary Sources

Spring 2026 date and time TBA
Louis Prima Room (room 306) in Jones Hall, 6801 Freret St.
Tulane University
RSVP required

Join us for a hands-on introduction to archives, featuring materials from the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz, a unit of Tulane University Special Collections.

Discover what archives are, why they matter, and how they can inspire and benefit you. Led by Melissa A. Weber, Hogan Archive curator.

This workshop is free and open to all. Students are encouraged to attend. Capacity: 20 attendees. For more information, email mweber3@tulane.edu.

Recent exhibitions include “I Shall Not Be Moved”: Black Student Life at Tulane, 1963-2023 (April - December 2023); Absolutely Unpredictable: Anne Rice in the City of Transgression (October 2022 - February 2023); Music IS the Scene": Jazz Fest's First Decade, 1970-1979 (March - May 2022); Captive Voices: Hearing, Seeing, and Imagining Angola Prison, launched as a complement to the 2019 Tulane Reading Project selection, Vengeance by Zachary Lazar; and Proteus 1892, Teunisson 1902, and Louis Armstrong 1949: Selections from the Carnival Holdings.

TUSC staff, as well as many Tulane students, have created several digital exhibitions that feature TUSC collections. Some highlights are linked here; to view all of the TUSC digital exhibitions, please visit the Tulane Libraries portal for online exhibitions. 

Tulane University Special Collections (TUSC) welcomes loan requests from institutions with established exhibition programs and professional staff qualified to handle the materials requested. Loan requests are judged on their own merits and the final decision to loan an item is made on a case-by-case basis. TUSC will provide an agreement for approved loans and cannot sign agreements from a borrowing institution. For more information about our loan program, please email Kevin Williams, Coordinator for Exhibits & Outreach, Tulane University Special Collections, kevinw@tulane.edu.