CRESCENT CITY ILLUSTRATED. EDITED AND COMPILED BY EDWIN L. JEWELL. THE COMMERCIAL, SOCIAL, POLITICAL AND GENERAL HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS, INCLUDING BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ITS DISTINGUISHED CITIZENS.
[New Orleans: 1874]. Folio. Extra-illustrated chromolithographic title page as frontis, dated 1874. [21], 12- 336, [18] pp. Profusely illustrated, many advertisements. Light to moderate foxing, Good+. Bound in publisher's black cloth with front cover stamped in gilt: "Presented to Str. Waloon | Jewell's Crescent City Illustrated. | By James A. Gresham Bookseller & Stationer. 92 Camp Street. New Orleans."
This book has the ownership bookplate of Felix Limongi [1865-1929], New Orleans merchant, avid collector of historical ephemera, and resident Secretary to the New Orleans Knights of Columbus. The donor of large collections of historical ephemera to libraries and historical societies, he was described in contemporary newspaper articles as a cultured man and powerful speaker.
"No City in the United States, of equal population, commercial importance and material wealth, is so little known by the outside world as New Orleans," writes the author, from New Orleans on January 1, 1873. His intention is to present "the most prominent features that contribute to make the Crescent City the great metropolis of the South and South-West, and prove the intelligence, enterprise and progressive spirit of its citizens." Written during mid-Reconstruction, the book "commands the serious consideration of capitalists, immigrants and the commercial world."
The book has biographical sketches of businessmen, war veterans and other locals; detailed information on carnival societies, churches and two synagogues, insurance companies, public buildings and institutions, public squares, theatres, various associations, residences, stores, schools, views, factories, hotels, and other items of public interest.
A sketch of Dr. William Newton Mercer contains a story of him saving a young slave's life at a summer reseort in East Mississippi, "One day there was an alarm, a cry of distress, a call for a doctor. Dr. Mercer, who happened to be in attendance... found a crowd, surrounding a negro boy, a slave of one of the families sojourning at the resort ; the boy was in an agony of fright and pain, and the spectators were all in wild panic what to do. The poor boy had been badly bitten by that most poisonous of snakes, the copperhead moccasin. Gently waving aside the helpless crowd, Dr. Mercer quickly examined the wound, drew from his pockets his surgical instruments, scarified it, and then applying his lips to it, sucked out the poison. The boy recovered, never experiencing any effect from the poison."
A sketch of John McDonogh describes him as a "great friend of the African race" yet goes on to say he was not an abolitionist, and "never believed in the social and political equality of the negro... always believed the white superior to the negro race... was opposed to setting slaves free and to remain in the state", believing that they should be sent to Liberia.
Thompson 1346. Item #37804
Price: $1,000.00