Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 - (Page 50)

www.louisianamuseums.org/ French Quarter time capsules The Woman’s Exchange operates two historic home museums in New Orleans The preservation of the Hermann-Grima and Gallier historic house museums in New Orleans’ French Quarter can be credited to an amazing organization with almost 130 years of service to New Orleans. The Woman’s Exchange, established in 1881 as the Christian Woman’s Exchange of New Orleans, organized itself to assist women “in need” after the Civil War. Through changing circumstances over the course of 127 years, the Exchange’s original mission as a human services organization evolved into one promoting historic preservation and interpretation. The Exchange’s early “managers,” as they prefer to be called, were savvy businesswomen with a mission to not only assist women “in need,” but to own property and establish ways that would sustain women in the long run. Caroline Gratia Williams Walmsley, second president of the Christian Woman’s Exchange of New Orleans was described as “a queen whose throne was philanthropy and whose scepter, benevolence.” Walmsley was elected president of The Christian Woman’s Exchange a year after it was founded and served in that role until her death in 1905. According to Kathleen Waters Sander’s publication, The Business of Charity: The Woman’s Exchange Movement, 1832-1900, Walmsley negotiated a major gift of cash for the purchase of the Exchange’s first building. Assisting her in this endeavor were Mrs. Charles T. Harris who gave $20,000 and Mrs. Whitney who gave $10,000. Sander states that these gifts were two of the largest ever given to charitable organizations by women in their own name during the late 19th century. The Woman’s Exchange of New Orleans purchased a building at 41-43 Bourbon Street in 1881 which served as the headquarters for the Exchange. From this location, the Exchange operated a consignment shop where they sold handmade items, furniture, and bric-a-brac while also serving home-cooked meals. The shop was competitive with many of the other stores that were operating in the French Quarter during that time. The New Orleans Exchange was extremely successful and served as a model for other Exchange chapters throughout the South. To further their mission, the managers purchased a larger piece of property called the Edwards House. The Exchange paid $28,500 in cash for the building. The impressive structure was located on Camp and South streets near Lafayette Square. At this property, the Exchange operated a boarding house for women in a “chaperoned environment.” Just as at the property on Bourbon Street, the Exchange utilized this property by maintaining a consignment shop and serving meals. The Business of Charity states that the Exchange of New Orleans “adopted an egalitarian mission to serve as a depot or salesroom where any woman from the richest lady in the land to the poorest can place the work of her fingers and offer it for sale.” As time passed, the Exchange outgrew the Edwards House and in 1924 The Hermann-Grima House depicts the decided to purchase the gracious lifestyle of a prosperous historic Grima residence on Creole family in the years from 1830 to St. Louis Street in the French 1860. Here the home is decorated for Quarter. The Exchange Christmas. continued its work at this new location, using the rear courtyard as an outdoor restaurant. In the late 1960s, realizing the historic value of the Grima residence, the Exchange began to interpret the families that lived in the house during the 19th century. Extensive research was conducted about open-hearth kitchens of the 1830s. As an educational program for visitors, volunteer interpreters began preparing 19th-century meals similar to those enslaved servants would have cooked. This popular program continues to this day. In addition to the kitchen, other parts of the house have also been refurbished with period collections either purchased by the Exchange or donated by descendants of families that occupied the house. Part of the Exchange’s research revealed that Samuel 50 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Winter 2008-09 http://www.louisianamuseums.org/

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008 Contents Friends Editor's Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Prospect.1 New Orleans The Historic New Orleans Collection The Enduring Performance of Michael P. Smith Jazz Notes Louisiana Foodways Birds of a Feather: Windfowl Carvings in Southeast Louisiana Louisiana Association of Museums Louisiana Architecture O. Winston Link in Louisiana The Ogden Museum of Southern Art The Colfax Massacre Louisiana State Museum Unlocking the History of Greek Key Architecture Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2008

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