The miniature furniture cataloged is considered to be of the second size, i.e., miniatures which could have been used as traveler's samples, cabinetmaker's models, or toys. The entries are selected from collections of Louisiana and Texas museums and historical societies. They were located through use of a questionnaire sent to the institutions listed in the Official Museum Directory as having furniture and decorative arts collections. Responses showed five institutions owning miniatures of the second size, as follows: Louisiana State Museum, New Orleans; Anglo-American Art Museum, Baton Rouge; Harris County Heritage Society, Houston; Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio; and Dallas Historical Society.

Catastrophes like Katrina destroy a community's critical infrastructure-a situation that instigates several dilemmas. Immediately, the community experiences information disruption within the community, as well as between the community and the outside world. The inability to communicate because of physical or virtual barriers to information instigates instant isolation. Prolonged, this scarcity of information becomes an information poverty spell, placing hardship on a community accustomed to easily accessible and applicable information. Physical devastation causes the scarcity of what Abraham Maslow calls basic survival needs-physiological, security, and social-a needs regression from the need to self-actualize, to meet intellectual and aesthetic needs. Because needs regress, the type of information required to meet the needs, also changes-regresses to information regarding survival needs. Regressed information needs requires altered information behaviors-altered methods and means to meet the information needs of the post-disaster situation. Situational information behavior follows new mores-altered norms-norms constructed for the post-disaster situation. To justify the unconventional, situational social norms, residents must adjust their beliefs about appropriate behavior. Situational beliefs support situational social norms-and situational information behaviors prevail. Residents find they must trust strangers, create makeshift messaging systems, and in some cases, disregard the law to meet their post-disaster survival needs.

The problem addressed by this investigation is whether the provision of centralized school library services is related to the reading habits and reading abilities of elementary school children. In considering this problem, a survey approach was utilized which entailed the examination of standardized reading achievement test scores, student reading records, and parent, teacher, and student questionnaire responses.

A three dimensional sampling technique was used to compare field understory conditions in Southeastern Louisiana using a laser range finder at three height levels (0.5m, 1.0m, and 1.5m) to LiDAR generated understory conditions to determine if a relationship existed. A similar comparison was made between densitometer crown closure measurements and understory LiDAR vegetation counts. A comparison between overstory LiDAR counts and understory LiDAR counts was also performed. LiDAR and understory counts exhibited a significant linear relationship but were poorly correlated at each sample level (Level-1 R2 = 0.34 ? 0.38, Level-2 R2 = 0.36 ? 0.43). The Level-3 LiDAR slope coefficient was non-significant. The crown closure versus understory linear model did not produce any significant results. The overstory LiDAR versus understory LiDAR model produced a moderate correlation (R2 = 0.5226) and was significant. The process of relating LiDAR points to understory conditions was not repeatable, even in the same geographic region.

The uniqueness of Samuel Wilson, Jr.’s (born 1911) career is studied in terms of practicing architect, scholar, and civic leader. The author was motived by the void in architectural literature about the people who have saved our architectural heritage. The introduction explains the purpose of the dissertation to determine, analyse, and interpret Wilson’s contributions, beginning in 1934. The search began with oral histories taken from Wilson and some of his peers. Archival research was conducted in the Tulane University Library and The Historic New Orleans Collection. Chapter 1 gives biographical information on Wilson, and background on New Orleans and the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) in the 1920s when Wilson entered Tulane University (1927). Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis [Sr.], Moise Goldstein, and Richard Koch, the trio of architects who influenced Wilson, are introduced. Chapter 2 is devoted to the experiences that moved Wilson in the direction of historic buildings, the Historic American Buildings Survey (1934) and a scholarship to Europe (1938). Chapter 3 presents Wilson’s mentor, Richard Koch, a pioneer in adaptive reuse and new design in an historic environment. Wilson carried his mentor’s concepts further and into the realm of scholarly pursuit. Along with publishing and teaching, Wilson was a driving force in the institutionalization of preservation in New Orleans. His election as founding president of Louisiana Landmarks Society (1950) is the beginning of his leadership role for the next twenty years. Chapter 4 deals with Wilson’s projects in the post World War II era of new construction in the Vieux Carré and central city, and how he guided change by the use of historicism. Chapter 5 discusses, through Wilson’s projects, the critical preservation issues of the 1950s and 1960s. It was an era of problem solving without precedent guidelines. Chapter 6 summarizes Wilson’s contributions from his field accomplishments and the creation of a new body of knowledge to his activities in national preservation policy. The appendixes form a catalog of Wilson’s work: historic projects; literary works; drawings; TV programs, audio and audio—visual recordings; honors and awards; translation of a specification for a colonial horse-and-wind mill; and four walking tours. There are 154 illustrations. / Ph. D.

In 1968, in the midst of the Civil Rights Era, the Louisiana government created the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL). During this period of heightened ethnic awareness, CODOFIL aimed to rectify the damage done by prior Louisiana legislation, which prohibited French language on public school grounds. In an effort to revitalize the French language in Louisiana, the organization hired teachers from foreign francophone countries and advocated for a curriculum rooted in Standard French. According to historians, many locals felt Louisiana-specific French dialects were once again rejected. Alongside these foreign teachers were teachers local to Louisiana. Utilizing interviews with Louisiana natives who became French teachers in the state, this paper aims to add to the narrative by presenting their discussion of the topic. The interviews consistently refute claims that local educators were opposed to CODOFIL’s hiring of foreign teachers. In addition, the interviews explore the strides these teachers made in revitalizing Louisiana French in spite of CODOFIL’s complicated founder, James Domengeaux.

Damn Near Perfect is the first section of the second draft of a novel. It is a romance and a coming-of-age story, about an conservatively raised young man, Reese McEwan. On a Mardi Gras visit to Louisiana, Reese falls in love with Noel Guillory, a bisexual poet finishing her last year at Louisiana State University. Reese also dreams of becoming a woodworker, and wants to serve as an apprentice at his family's furniture workshop; his parents oppose this wish and his relationship with Noel. From an affluent, Protestant background, Reese is a senior at Hampden-Sydney College, one of the last all male colleges in the U.S. He has been raised to take for granted his culture's very traditional, conservative values, and at the opening of the book has met with nothing to dispute these ideas. During the course of the novel, Reese abandons his education and traditional lifestyle. Because of his fascination with Noel and how she lives her life, he tries to become a part of her world, to his and her cost, and possibly to their benefit. Most of the novel is set in Baton Rouge, where Noel is finishing school at LSU, and where Reese goes to pursue her. The year is 1992. This first section is one hundred and four pages long, and covers the time from the beginning of Reese's visit to Louisiana, to when he goes back to school in Virginia. The second section, of about fifty pages or less, will cover his time back at college; until he decides to abandon his pursuit of a college degree and move to Baton Rouge permanently, in order to be with Noel and pursue a new career in woodworking. The final section, about one hundred pages in length, will cover Reese's attempts to build a relationship with Noel, and his frustrations with her much more liberal view of what a dating relationship should be.Damn Near Perfect explores how we decide who we will to grow up to be; what kind of relationship we want, what kind of person makes us happy, and what kind of person, in turn, we can make happy. It is about staking our claims to fulfillment - in love, work, and family, and about what our claims sometimes cost us.

In the winter of 1999, Artistic Director Harriet Vogt decided to retire earlier than had been anticipated by the university. With her retirement just weeks away on March 1, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Dr. John Miller, asked if I was interested in taking a leave of absence from the Department of Visual Arts and becoming Interim Artistic Director of Fanfare. At the same time I was beginning to look for a possible internship that would take advantage of my professional experience in the arts and the knowledge that I had gained in graduate school at U.N.O. My previous experience with directing presenting and festival organizations had been focused in urban areas where a large sophisticated audience that was accustomed to supporting the arts typicaUy exists. Directing an arts organization in a rural area would present many new challenges.

In 1803, the Louisiana Purchase doubled the territory of the fledgling United States. Taking control of and defending the new territory, especially the culturally heterogeneous city of New Orleans occupied much of the administration's time. Most of the burden for establishing the defense policy rested on William C. C. Claiborne, a staunch Jeffersonian, former member of Congress from Tennessee, and previous governor of the Mississippi Territory. By working with local business leaders with a stake in American success, observing the local customs and traditions, and gradually encouraging political participation, Claiborne successfully introduced the American militia system to a culture far different from that of his native Virginia. Claiborne's policies reduced the likelihood that local dissidents and foreign powers such as Spain and Great Britain could conspire to subvert American government in Louisiana by rebellion and invasion.

The wetlands of Louisiana have provided protection against floods and storms for thousands of years. With the construction of the Mississippi River levees and increased urbanization the wetlands are quickly disappearing, thus leaving the area vulnerable to hurricane storm surge. Since Hurricane Katrina, levees have been showcased as the only way of fully protecting southeast Louisiana from floods and storms; however, this is also being accompanied by a push for more funding for coastal restoration. There is evidence that hurricane protection levees and coastal restoration are incompatible. This research examines the implications of levees on the wetlands both directly and indirectly. Furthermore, a survey was conducted to discover public perception about the impacts of levees in southeast Louisiana by residents most as risk for flooding from hurricane storm surge.