In 1881, Margaret Bartlett of New Orleans crafted the Christian Woman's Exchange using the New York Exchange chapter as a model. Bartlett hoped this new organization would help alleviate at least some of the economic suffering "reduced gentlewomen"faced. Despite the Exchange's original mission to help the elite, the group soon crossed class and racial boundaries in a campaign of conservative activism. The Christian Woman's Exchange helped women provide for their families by training them to produce homemade goods for sale in consignment shops. Simultaneously, working-class women found employment within the Christian Woman's Exchange lunch room and other business ventures. Since the group's consignors had the opportunity to earn wages while remaining at home, and working-class women tied themselves to a respectable business, the accepted societal expectations for all women involved remained intact. In the group's first decade, the Christian Woman's Exchange members managed to maintain the Southern lady veneer while attracting attention from women around the world.

Cookbooks have a unique ability to record women.s history, both private and public. Cookbooks transmit not only instructions for preparing specific dishes, but also the values of class, race and gender of the times and places in which they are created. This study will focus on several such cookbooks produced by Louisiana women in the mid-twentieth century, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Different though these works are, they collectively demonstrate that the best cookbook authors are purveyors not only of recipes, but also of class values, ethnic relations and folklore, and gender models that one generation of women endeavors to transmit to the next. Most important, this study will argue that these cookbooks provide a rich and penetrating insight into the class structure in rural Louisiana, race and accomplishment in an era of segregation, and the role of gender in domestic and professional occupation.

In the first few decades of the nineteenth century, Americans and immigrants moved to New Orleans hoping to take advantage of the opportunities the city offered. Many American citizens moved from cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Recognizing the lack of social welfare programs and assistance given to the poor, a group of women established the Female Orphan Society. From its creation, the Female Orphan Society worked in providing aid to indigent mothers and their children through providing religious, vocational, and educational training. In a short time, the FOS emerged as the only private, Protestant female refuge for immigrant families and their children in New Orleans. This involvement elevated the role of the asylum in the city and heightened the influence of an institution run by southern, upper-class white women.

This thesis focuses on the impact of a mega-store on the existing businesses in a specific area--Magazine Street in New Orleans. The potential mega-store is a 200,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter that is part of the retail component of the St. Thomas housing re-development. The focus of this project is the retail competition that might be generated by this mega-store. Businesses were studied and placed into categories as either direct or indirect competitors to the mega-store. Previous research identified certain categories of store types that could be impacted (either positively or negatively) by the location of national stores in their communities. These categories were used to determine the impact that Wal-Mart might have on businesses on Magazine Street. Business owners were surveyed to determine how they thought they would be impacted. In the opinions of the business owners, the overall impact that a Wal-Mart would have on Magazine Street businesses would be negative. The surveys do show, however, mixed attitudes among the Magazine Street business owners toward Wal-Mart's coming.

The Works Progress Administration came to New Orleans in 1935, a time of economic uncertainty and even fear. The implementation of the relief embodied in the WPA was influenced by local factors that reinforced the existing social order at first but that left a framework through which that order could be challenged. The business of providing WPA relief also was attended by scandal and criticism. In spite of these inherent weaknesses and certain incident, the WPA left behind an enviable physical legacy that is used and enjoyed today by the citizens of New Orleans. This paper explores the roots of that legacy, some of the obstacles faced by the WPA, and how a local government, and its citizens, related and adjusted to an increasingly powerful and intrusive federal government.

Les Bon Temps is a collection of nine essays written about New Orleans between 2005 and 2007. Though not specifically about the effects of hurricane Katrina on the city, this collection provides a personal glimpse of post-Katrina New Orleans though the eyes of the author. The essays address subjects such as race relations, public protest, tap water quality, post-traumatic depression, energy monopolies, lifestyle, culture, and evacuation.

The unique cultural techniques of the historic building trades of New Orleans are currently at risk of being lost due to a lack of new master craftsmen and the demise of the current generation of master craftsmen. The purpose of this study is twofold: to analyze the historic transmission of the trades in New Orleans through the lens of workforce development and to inventory and analyze current programs that teach the trades. Analysis of historic training in the trades and best practices in workforce development inform an assessment of the strengths of current programs and their ability to enhance the supply of master craftsmen. Additional analysis of workforce development practices and programmatic strengths combine to illustrate room introducing career pathways and intermediaries into the current system of training. This system of training in New Orleans is fragmented and insufficient to truly enhance supply; however, programmatic strengths present opportunities for improvement.

New Orleans has had a consistently high homicide rate for around twenty years, but limited research has committed to discovering a successful solution to the pre- and post-Katrina crime problem. Prior research has been conducted to analyze whether the Southern “culture of violence,” poverty, income inequality, unemployment, gun ownership and legislation, gangs, and residential segregation affect homicide, but no study applies these factors to New Orleans. Using a case study analysis that applies these variables studied in prior research to New Orleans and information acquired from the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Uniform Crime Reports, correlations are made between homicide in New Orleans and poverty, income inequality, and residential segregation. Implications show that homicide is affected by multiple factors. All of these factors should be analyzed when homicide is the focus of the research because homicide is not a result of one or two variables.

The failed New Orleans Cultural Center Complex was cultural genocide to an area of the neighborhood known as Treme, where a tribute to the jazz great and native son, Louis Armstrong, was planned as an afterthought. The questions remain, was the planning and building of Louis Armstrong Park responsible for the genocide of the Treme neighborhood, is the park an appropriate use of land, and what are the prospects for the park's future? This thesis examines the cultural gumbo of New Orleans history, explores the early days of Louis Armstrong and the development of jazz, sets the record straight by vindicating the Louis Armstrong Park as the culprit for demolition in Treme, and takes a look at "the Back ‘o Town" as a tribute to him.

The following thesis is a brief view of production of UNO's Spring 2009 production of Shakespeare's classic comedy Much Ado About Nothing. This thesis will include analysis, research, production book, documentation from the production, and an evaluation of the process of bringing the production to life. The play was performed in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the University of New Orleans Performing Arts Center Robert E. Nims Theatre on April 23, 24, 25, and 30 as well as May 1, 2, and 3.