The Historic New Orleans Collection, in New Orleans, Louisiana, has just announced that the archive of photographer Harold F. Baquet (1958–2015) will be permanently housed at THNOC’s Williams Research Center. The announcement was made with the support of Cheron Brylski, Baquet’s widow, who has retained the archive since his death one year ago on June 18, 2015. The acquisition was approved Tuesday,
May 10.Decades of African-American culture are now to be preserved in the French Quarter repository.
An advocate for the black community, Baquet captured local African-American life from the streets of the Seventh Ward to the corridors of City Hall. The seventh-generation New Orleanian graduated from St. Augustine High School and worked as an electrician before pursuing his childhood dream of photography. After working for numerous news outlets, Baquet photographed the administrations of Mayor Ernest N. Morial (1978–1986) and his successor, Sidney Barthelemy (1986–1994). In 1989, he accepted a job at Loyola University New Orleans as campus photographer and served there for more than 25 years, earning numerous honors.
“Much of Harold Baquet’s work covers time periods and subjects not overly represented in our collections, including African-American life in the last quarter of the 20th century,” said John. H. Lawrence, director of museum programs at THNOC. “It coincides chronologically with some other collections we have, but it’s a view of the city through different eyes.”
