Monday, November 25, 2013

Le Beau Plantation

Wisconsin-born photographer Howard “Cole” Coleman (1883-1969) took this image of Le Beau plantation between 1956 and 1962. Every August during those years, he and his wife Thelma consulted Louisiana chambers of commerce and traveled the region's highways and country roads to visit and photograph historic landmarks. They advertised and sold the resulting silver gelatin prints locally. In 1963, they donated a series of 16 x 20” photographic enlargements to the Louisiana Landmarks Society that were exhibited at Gallier Hall under the title “The Thelma Hecht Coleman Collection.” According to an advertisement he placed in The Times-Picayune, Coleman considered his Louisiana-born wife the inspiration for his capture of Louisiana architectural subjects. Upon her death, he sold his copy prints and ultimately donated his source photographs and negatives to Tulane University Libraries.

Learn more about the Southeastern Architectural Archive's Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection here.

Tulane University's Digital Library is in the process of digitizing the entire collection.

Image above: Howard Coleman, photographer. Le Beau Plantation House, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Courtesy Thelma Hecht Coleman Memorial Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

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