Sherds & Shipwrecks

On this week’s show, we look at New Orleans history through the lens of the city’s material culture. 

We begin at the Historic New Orleans Collection, which has played host to an annual gathering of antiques experts, collectors, and aficionados  for over a decade. We speak to Philippe Halbert, who presented original research at the Antiques Forum centered on the material culture of the French Atlantic world. 

Next, we meet Jim Bruseth and Toni Turner, who reveal a surprising turn of events that preceded the city's official founding. Evidently, if the French explorer La Salle hadn't blundered in his attempt to form a colony here, we would have been celebrating our 300th birthday 30 years ago.

And we'll spend some time with French furniture whisperer, Christophe Pourny, who evangelizes the gospel and history of dining room furniture in his new book, The Furniture Bible.