About the Louisiana State Museum
The Louisiana State Museum began as leftovers from a world's fair. Louisiana assembled a large collection of artifacts for its exhibit at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and when the fair closed the state decided the material should be kept, expanded, and shown rather than dispersed. The museum was established in 1906 to do that. Its first homes were the two Spanish colonial buildings flanking St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square: the Cabildo, completed in 1799 as the seat of the Spanish colonial government, and the Presbytère, which became museum property in 1911.
The Cabildo is the site of the Louisiana Purchase transfer ceremonies of 1803, when the territory passed from Spain to France and then, days later, to the United States; it later housed the Louisiana Supreme Court. Today it displays three floors of exhibits on Louisiana history, with changing shows in the adjoining 1839 Arsenal. The Presbytère holds exhibits on its first two floors and the museum's offices on the third. Over more than a century the institution has grown from these buildings into a statewide system of historic structures and purpose-built museums, and it serves as the repository for the state's historic artifacts and documents.
The museum's official site lists ten museums. In the French Quarter they are the Cabildo, the Presbytère, the 1850 House in the Lower Pontalba Building (a furnished three-story apartment from the city's most prosperous decade), Madame John's Legacy (a French colonial house rebuilt after the fire of 1788 that survived the greater fire of 1794), the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Mint (a federal mint opened in 1835 that briefly struck coins for the Confederacy), and the Louisiana Civil Rights Museum. Outside New Orleans are the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum in Natchitoches, the E.D. White Historic Site in Thibodaux, and the Wedell-Williams Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum in Patterson.
Collections and Research Services
Researchers use the Louisiana Historical Center, the museum's archive, located on the third floor of the Old U.S. Mint on Esplanade Avenue. Its holdings include maps and manuscripts, sheet music, microfilm, scrapbooks, pamphlets, and newspapers, with particular depth in the colonial period. With support from the National Endowment for the Humanities the museum is digitizing more than 70,000 French and Spanish judicial and notarial documents, a core source for anyone tracing a Louisiana family or property back before 1803. The museum's website has a "Research Our Collections" section describing current access procedures; hours and appointment requirements for the Historical Center are not published on the pages we reviewed, so confirm them before traveling. For a plan that pairs these records with free online sources, see our guide to free family history research.
Planning Your Visit
Because the system spans ten sites in five cities, hours and admission differ by building and change over time; the official site, louisianastatemuseum.org, is the place to confirm which French Quarter buildings are open on a given day and what tickets cost. The main office can be reached at 1-800-568-6968. The Cabildo, Presbytère, and 1850 House are all on or beside Jackson Square and can be walked between in minutes; the Old U.S. Mint is a few blocks downriver at the edge of the Quarter. Support groups such as the Friends of the Cabildo run a gift shop in the 1850 House and offer walking tours of the historic districts.
If your trip takes you north to Natchitoches for the Sports Hall of Fame and history museum, the National Park Service's Cane River Creole National Historical Park preserves two Creole plantations a few miles south of town.
Explore Louisiana's Historical Landscape
Use the When It Was app to discover historical businesses, landmarks, and buildings throughout Louisiana. See how your community has transformed over the decades.
Explore When It Was →