"Enrique Alférez, born in Zacatecas, Mexico, lived nearly the entire twentieth century. After service in the Mexican Revolution as a youth, he emigrated to Texas; studied in Chicago; and, in 1929, first made his way to Louisiana. For almost seventy years, he worked in New Orleans. His lasting imprint is seen among figurative sculptures, monuments, fountains, and architectural details in prominent locations from the Central Business District to the shore of Lake Pontchartrain and beyond. Author Katie Bowler Young has gained unprecedented access to Alférez's personal and family holdings and has crafted a poetic evocation of the life and work of this preeminent artist. Enrique Alférez: Sculptor is the latest entry in the well-received Louisiana Artists Biography series. The book, featuring more than 100 images of Alférez's work in New Orleans and beyond, will be the first in the series to center on sculpture and public art"--
"Created to accompany a 2021 exhibition commemorating the centennial of John Clemmer's birth, this catalog includes three essays that offer insight into Clemmer's life and art, as well as full-color plates of numerous works and an exhibition checklist"--
For more than 250 years New Orleans' Charity Hospital has struggled to serve the city's indigent ill, and in so doing has become an institution steeped in Louisiana history and politics. In this fascinating new book John Salvaggio traces the colorful history of Charity Hospital from the early days of French colonial medicine through the Spanish period, the early American years, the volatile Huey Long and World War II eras, and the modern postwar period.Established in 1736, with the legacy of a compassionate French ship builder, Charity Hospital has weathered many storms to maintain its status as the oldest continually operating hospital in the United States. It has withstood the transfer of Louisiana territory from the French to the Spanish and survived devastating hurricanes and a fire. The institution has also endured the stormy beginnings of Louisiana statehood, the hardships of the Civil War, and more recently, the stresses of caring for an ever-expanding patient load. Throughout much of its history, Charity Hospital has encountered political squabbles, patronage problems, and financial woes. As a new century approaches, the hospital finds its future threatened by inadequate funding and the crumbling of its physical facilities.Despite many setbacks, Charity Hospital has accomplished much in its history. Salvaggio presents a summary of the many medical procedures, diagnostic techniques, and therapeutic innovations that have been introduced at the "Big Free," as the hospital is popularly known. He also provides previously unchronicled information on the hospital's history during the twentieth century, writing about political infighting during the governorship of Huey P. Long, construction of a new hospital building in the 1930s, integration of the hospital in the 1960s, its relationships with the medical schools of Louisiana State University and Tulane University, and the current frustrating attempts to adequately staff the institution.Interviews with many of Charity's past directors and others associated with the hospital, as well as lively anecdotes from the author's own experience, bring the hospital's history to life and provide valuable insight into the institution's inner workings. These reminiscences, coupled with Salvaggio's depiction of Charity's past, present, and now questionable future, make this a fascinating and informative work on an important hospital of the South.
The tale begins over three-hundred years ago, when the Fair People—the goblins, fairies, dragons, and other fabled and fantastic creatures of a dozen lands—fled the Old World for the New, seeking haven from the ways of Man. With them came their precious jewels: diamonds, rubies, emeralds, pearls... But then the Fair People vanished, taking with them their twelve fabulous treasures. And they remained hidden until now... Across North America, these twelve treasures, over ten-thousand dollars in precious jewels, are buried. The key to finding each can be found within the twelve full color paintings and verses of The Secret. Yet The Secret is much more than that. At long last, you can learn not only the whereabouts of the Fair People's treasure, but also the modern forms and hiding places of their descendants: the Toll Trolls, Maitre D'eamons, Elf Alphas, Tupperwerewolves, Freudian Sylphs, Culture Vultures, West Ghosts and other delightful creatures in the world around us. The Secret is a field guide to them all. Many "armchair treasure hunt" books have been published over the years, most notably Masquerade (1979) by British artist Kit Williams. Masquerade promised a jewel-encrusted golden hare to the first person to unravel the riddle that Williams cleverly hid in his art. In 1982, while everyone in Britain was still madly digging up hedgerows and pastures in search of the golden hare, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt was published in America. The previous year, author and publisher Byron Preiss had traveled to 12 locations in the continental U.S. (and possibly Canada) to secretly bury a dozen ceramic casques. Each casque contained a small key that could be redeemed for one of 12 jewels Preiss kept in a safe deposit box in New York. The key to finding the casques was to match one of 12 paintings to one of 12 poetic verses, solve the resulting riddle, and start digging. Since 1982, only two of the 12 casques have been recovered. The first was located in Grant Park, Chicago, in 1984 by a group of students. The second was unearthed in 2004 in Cleveland by two members of the Quest4Treasure forum. Preiss was killed in an auto accident in the summer of 2005, but the hunt for his casques continues.
Steve Miles continues his journey to finally discover who he is while pursuing a complicated but wonderfully rewarding relationship with a woman from another, older world. He navigates the eccentricities of the West Texas art colony of Marfa, a collection of intriguing, and at times downright weird, characters in Paris, and the relaxed village life of southern France. From experiencing a hurricane in New Orleans, to delving into the world of Tiki culture to ultimately letting go and becoming who he really is meant to be, Steve fills in the gaps with insightful observations about life. Ultimately Steve finds he must reconcile his beliefs with French perspectives on a host of modern social issues. The Sommières Sun is a genre bending tale that it is part travel writing, social commentary, humor and coming of age.
An illustrated history of New Orleans' monuments. From the statue of Joan of Arc that stands in the French Quarter to the Bienville Monument and the bust of General Lafayette, this guide provides a historical look at more than forty of the city's landmarks. Some remain ensconced in gardens or private collections while others exist in public view. Descriptions accompany each image, providing the legend behind each landmark and a deeper knowledge of New Orleans' rich past.
In the fall of 1862 Julia Wilbur left her family’s farm near Rochester, New York, and boarded a train to Washington, DC. As an ardent abolitionist, the forty-seven-year-old Wilbur left a sad but stable life, headed toward the chaos of the Civil War, and spent the next several years in Alexandria, Virginia, devising ways to aid recently escaped slaves and hospitalized Union soldiers. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time shapes Wilbur’s diaries and other primary sources into a historical narrative of a woman who was alternately brave, self-pitying, foresighted, and myopic. Paula Tarnapol Whitacre describes Wilbur’s experiences against the backdrop of Alexandria, a southern town held by the Union from 1861 to 1865; of Washington, DC, where Wilbur became active in the women’s suffrage movement; and of Rochester, New York, where she began a lifelong association with Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony. Harriet Jacobs, author of Incidents of a Slave Girl, became Wilbur’s friend and ally. Together, the two women, black and white, fought social convention to improve the lives of African Americans escaping slavery by coming across Union lines. In doing so, they faced the challenge to achieve racial and gender equality that continues today. A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time is the captivating story of a woman who remade herself at midlife during a period of massive social upheaval.
In 1803 in the colonial South American city of La Plata, Doña Martina Vilvado y Balverde presented herself to church and crown officials to denounce her husband of more than four years, Don Antonio Yta, as a “woman in disguise.” Forced to submit to a medical inspection that revealed a woman’s body, Don Antonio confessed to having been María Yta, but continued to assert his maleness and claimed to have a functional “member” that appeared, he said, when necessary. Passing to América is at once a historical biography and an in-depth examination of the sex/gender complex in an era before “gender” had been divorced from “sex.” The book presents readers with the original court docket, including Don Antonio’s extended confession, in which he tells his life story, and the equally extraordinary biographical sketch offered by Felipa Ybañez of her “son María,” both in English translation and the original Spanish. Thomas A. Abercrombie’s analysis not only grapples with how to understand the sex/gender system within the Spanish Atlantic empire at the turn of the nineteenth century but also explores what Antonio/María and contemporaries can teach us about the complexities of the relationship between sex and gender today. Passing to América brings to light a previously obscure case of gender transgression and puts Don Antonio’s life into its social and historical context in order to explore the meaning of “trans” identity in Spain and its American colonies. This accessible and intriguing study provides new insight into historical and contemporary gender construction that will interest students and scholars of gender studies and colonial Spanish literature and history. This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses and the Association of Research Libraries—and the generous support of New York University. Learn more at the TOME website: openmonographs.org.
