By Michele Lavoie, Director of Archives
An Archives feature published in the Winter 2022 Bulletin recounted the accidental discovery of a broadside advertising the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824–1825 U.S. tour. Previously unknown to Academy staff, the broadside had been found hidden behind another framed engraving and was accessioned into the Academy’s collections in recognition of Lafayette’s status as a Foreign Honorary Member, elected in 1785.
If the story had ended there, it would have been compelling on its own. But as the Bulletin article notes, “Discoveries are often amazing moments in archival work.” Remarkably, the Lafayette broadside was discovered a second time, uncovering a whole new chapter in its history.
In October 2024, the Archives staff received a call from a curator at the Louisiana State Museum, located in the historic Cabildo in New Orleans. The museum was preparing an exhibition to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette’s visit to Louisiana. The curator explained that they had originally arranged to borrow a copy of the broadside from another institution, but those plans had fallen through. While searching online for alternatives, he discovered the Archives article and reached out to inquire about borrowing the Academy’s copy of the broadside for the exhibition.
The Academy Archives has received generous support from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation to expand outreach to the public and to peer institutions like the Louisiana State Museum. With this support, the Archives arranged to loan the broadside to the museum for the duration of the exhibition. On April 10—exactly two hundred years after the Marquis’s celebrated arrival in New Orleans—the exhibition opened with the Academy’s Lafayette broadside prominently displayed. Becky Mackie, Acting Director of the Louisiana State Museum, expressed the institution’s gratitude and appreciation for the professional cooperation.
For more information about Bienvenue Lafayette, which runs from April 2025 to January 2026, please visit the Louisiana State Museum’s website.