Chemical Education Today Photo by Paul S. Cohen
ACS National Meeting
Discovering New Orleans by Paul S. Cohen and Brenda H. Cohen
For the National ACS Convention in August 1999, we travel to the very special city of New Orleans, a place where the cultures of the Old World blend with the new. New Orleans had French and Spanish flags fly over her streets before she became part of the United States of America as a portion of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Each of these countries has left its individual stamp on this city, which has helped to create this unique place in America. Louisiana was named in honor of Louis XIV of France in the last quarter of the 17th century. In 1717, the Duke of Orleans lent his name to a new settlement along a curve in the Mississippi River—La Nouvelle Orleans or New Orleans. Economic considerations were the primary factor in choosing this semitropical, mosquito-infested swamp for a settlement. Its position on the mighty Mississippi, the third longest river in the world, gives the city access to 150 miles of American heartland and the Gulf of Mexico. Lake Pontchartrain, the seventh largest lake in the United States, borders the city on the north. New Orleans’ port is now the second largest in the nation. New Orleans, between four and six feet lower than the sea, is the only major American city below sea level. In 1913, A. Baldwin Wood designed and installed a pumping system, using giant, 16-foot screw-type pumps, to take the water overflow from the streets to Lake Pontchartrain. This drainage system was the prototype for the Dutch when they drained the Zuider Zee. Today, about 180 miles of canals, some of which are underground, form part of a very large drainage system that keeps this place dry. Most of the land surrounding New Orleans is swamp and makes it essentially an island. This helped isolate the city from the mainland for a good portion of its history, contributing to its unique and eclectic culture. The local dialect is very special and warrants an introduction. The name of this city is pronounced “Nawlins”. A Creole is one who was born in the colony and is a descendant of an early French or Spanish settler. Thus Creole, used as an adjective, denotes almost anything indigenous to the area. Cajuns claim descent from French colonists, who were expelled by the British from the Canadian Maritime Provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia about 350 years ago. These exiles then moved to this French-speaking area. Cajun is a corruption of Arcadian, the name by which these people were originally known. Vieux Carré, which translates as “old square”, is the name for the historic French Quarter for which New Orleans is so famous. Neutral ground is a median in a road. The term first came into use when Canal Street was just a wide strip of land separating two hostile communities, one living in the French Quarter and the other in the American Sector or Garden District. The French Quarter and the American Sector are only two of the many historic neighborhoods or faubourgs (French
for suburbs) for a variety of races and cultures that make up New Orleans. Some of these communities, going back to 1800, grew up on ridges or natural levees in the swamp and remained as a collection of disconnected suburbs until 1890. Ten of these commu- La Pharmacie Francaise in the Vieux Carré nities are on the list of National Historic Districts. The Greater New Orleans Tourist & Convention Commission publishes a French Quarter Walking Tour brochure that also includes a driving tour of the Garden District. Park rangers of the Jean Lafitte National Park offer free tours of the Vieux Carré and the Garden District. And now, as the locals say, “Laissez bon temp rouler!” or “Let the good times roll!” Let’s see the city: One of the most rewarding and fascinating ways to see this unique city is on a streetcar, one of the oldest continuously operating street railway systems in existence and a historic landmark. Begun in 1835 and made famous by Tennessee Williams in his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, the street railway system remains an important way to get around town. The St. Charles Street car takes us along the riverfront to the French Market, past the campuses of Loyola and Tulane Universities, past the elegant mansions of the Garden District, and to the very lush Audubon Park. Many trolley cars in use are of historical interest, such as the olive-green Perley Thomas Arch Roof-900 Series, built in 1923–24, and the Melbourne W2. In the heart of Vieux Carré is a beautiful, 19th-century, Creole style town house known as La Pharmacie Francaise or the New Orleans Pharmacy Museum. It was built in 1823 by Joseph Dufilho, Jr., who was America’s first licensed pharmacist in 1816. This museum has one of the largest and finest pharmaceutical collections in the nation. Voodoo practitioners were an important part of medicine and pharmacy in this area, as reflected by the museum’s collection of grisgris recipes and bottles dating from 1900. Within walking distance of the Vieux Carré is the Aquarium of the Americas. Four distinct environments exhibit the aquatic life of the Western Hemisphere and the adjacent seas: the Caribbean Reef with its transparent, walkthrough, under water tunnel; the multilevel Amazon Rainforest; the Mississippi River Delta; and the Gulf of Mexico tank. Be sure to leave time to enjoy the IMAX Theater. There are two particularly interesting and scenic ways to make the trip from the Aquarium to the Zoo: the St. Charles Streetcar and the Zoo Cruise. The Zoo Cruise gives visitors to New Orleans an opportunity to cruise the Mississippi. The Audubon Zoological Gardens in Audubon Park— between the Mississippi and St. Charles Avenue and opposite Tulane University—grows more than 1000 varieties of
JChemEd.chem.wisc.edu • Vol. 76 No. 8 August 1999 • Journal of Chemical Education
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ACS National Meeting
When Paul and Brenda Cohen aren’t traveling, they can be found at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ 08628; email:
[email protected].
Photo by Paul S. Cohen
ornamental plants from around the world. These plants are grouped with approximately 1500 animals of 372 species from the same region to form natural habitats. The exhibits include the Grasslands of the World, The Louisiana Swamp, and Monkey Hill. Monkey Hill was built as a WPA project, during the depression of the 1930s, to show the children of New Orleans what a hill looks like. It is 27.5 feet high, the highest landform in the city. For a chance to see the natural Louisiana environment, a trip to the Louisiana Nature and Science Center is in order. The Interpretive Center, set on 86 acres of ponds and woodlands, has several self-guided trails. Naturalists conduct walks and bird-watching expeditions at regularly scheduled times. Other sites of interest include the New Orleans Fire Department Museum, which is housed in an 1852 firehouse and displays historic firefighting equipment. The FreeportMcMoran Daily Living Science Museum is a hands-on museum with a planetarium and an observatory. Several industrial tours take visitors through industries of major importance to the economy of the area. For a look at the workings of a paper mill, go to the Boise Cascade Deridder Mill Company. The International Petroleum Museum provides a guided inspection of an offshore drilling rig. A tour of tropical plant displays of both flowering and economically important flora comes with a visit to the Louisiana Tech Horticultural Center. Motavit Seafoods provides a tour of a fish-packing plant and boat-building facility. To understand how the cotton industry works, visit the Producer’s Mutual Cotton Gin Company and see the cotton gin and warehouse. The Tabasco Visitor’s Center invites us all to visit the company’s museum and see how this famous product is made.
The Aquarium of the Americas
Storyland, a children’s fairy tale park located in New Orleans’ City Park.
New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau: 1520 Sugar Bowl Drive, New Orleans; 504/566-5011. New Orleans Pharmacy Museum: 514 Chartres Street, New Orleans; 504/524-9077. Aquarium of the Americas: 1 Canal Street, New Orleans; 800/774-7394.
Louisiana Nature and Science Center: Joe W. Brown Memorial Park, P. O. Box 870610, New Orleans; 504/2465672. New Orleans Fire Department Museum: 1135 Washington Ave., New Orleans; 504/896-4756. Freeport-McMoran Daily Living Science Museum: 409 Williams Blvd., New Orleans; 504/468-7274. Boise Cascade Deridder Mill Company: 4200 Highway 190 West, Deridder; 318/462-4300. International Petroleum Museum: Riverfront, Morgan City; 504/384-3744. Motavit Seafoods: P. O. Box 3916, Houma; 504/868-7191. Producer’s Mutual Cotton Gin Company: P. O. Box 278, Cheneyville; 318/279-2145. Tabasco Visitor’s Center: McIllhenny Company, Avery Island; 318/373-6129.
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Where to Find It in New Orleans
Audubon Zoological Gardens: 6500 Magazine Street, New Orleans; 504/581-4629.
