Everyone knows the Economy Hall Tent at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Now, “The Cultural Family of Economy Hall” tells the story of this famous music venue before the creation of jazz at Xavier University of Louisiana.

“The Cultural Family of Economy Hall” is a new exhibition that opened at Xavier University of Louisiana at the end of June on the second floor of Xavier’s University Center, room 205. The collection of photographs, documents, and curios share the music, social, and political activities that took place in the famed jazz venue for more than a century and will be on display for the remainder of the fall semester.

“Xavier’s Art Gallery is honored to host this special exhibition!” said Anne Collins Smith, Xavier University of Louisiana Art Gallery director. “Through this visual narrative, we are able to view a raw glimpse into the legacy of not only the Economy Hall itself but also the people who are a part of its history.”

The exhibition shows the range of activities that took place in Economy Hall. Images of journal pages written in French by Economy Society members, photos of band members like the Piron and Peerless Orchestras that played in the hall, and photographs of a recent gathering with members’ great- and great-great-grandchildren taken on Xavier’s campus taken by Girard Mouton and Cedric Ellsworth are included in the display.  Two pages from books in the Economy’s library contain a French edition about the first President of Haiti and a world atlas, both published before the Civil War. An image from the 1865 convention of the Friends of Universal Suffrage in the hall documents the formation of the Louisiana Republican party, which led to Reconstruction.  Also in the collection is a reproduction of a 19th-century voter registration document signed by an Economy Society secretary.

Visitors will also see the photos of descendants of soldiers from the Battle of New Orleans, 19th-century undertakers, musicians and more. The Cultural Family of Economy Hall doesn’t just include biological descendants but people who carry out the hall’s musical legacy in opera and second lines. 

The building, torn down after Hurricane Betsy destroyed most of it, sat at 1422-26 Ursulines, now the Craig schoolyard. Economy members included famous names in education like the Craig family and Medard Nelson, the arts like Joseph Daniel Warburg, politics like Walter Cohen, and photography like Arthur Bedou.

The exhibition, curated by Fatima Shaik, came from her research for the book “Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood” (2021). The book received the American Book Award and Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year (2022).

“I did so much research for the book that I couldn’t include everything. There are so many more stories to tell,” Shaik said. “The exhibition seemed the most natural way to engage others in the long and important history of Economy Hall. In one way or another, Economy Hall has affected everyone in New Orleans and many people around the world.”.

The exhibition opened June 29. The Cultural Family of Economy Hall is supported by the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation; the Platforms Fund of Antenna, Ashé Cultural Art Center, Junebug Productions and the Andy Warhol Foundation; Xavier University of Louisiana; and the Louisiana Creole Research Association.

Images Courtesy of Fatima Shaik, Anne Smith, The Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Xavier University of Louisiana Archives and Special Collections