Baton Rouge

by Sylvia Frank Rodrigue, Faye Phillips

Overview

In 1699, on a high bluff along the Mississippi River, explorer Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville, found the fabled "Red Stick," a post that marked the line between two Native American nations and gave Baton Rouge, Louisiana, its name. This book chronicles 150 years of the daily activities of Baton Rouge's residents through images of the city's growth and development; life during the Civil War, floods, hurricanes, and economic depressions; and people working, playing, and celebrating.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780738554068
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	08/11/2008
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	1,087,295
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Images of America: Baton Rouge showcases images from the extensive resources of the Louisiana State University Libraries and the State Library of Louisiana. The book features the work of Baton Rouge's most famous photographers: Andrew Lytle, remembered for his poignant Civil War images of a town struggling to survive; Fonville Winans, known for his pictures of the growing city taken as he piloted his small plane above it; and David King Gleason, who captured the triumphs and tragedies of life in the river city. Coauthors Sylvia Frank Rodrigue and Faye Phillips have also written Historic Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History. Rodrigue is an editorial consultant, and Phillips is associate dean of libraries at Louisiana State University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     6
Introduction     7
1850-1865     9
Churches and Schools     27
1866-1909     39
Politicians     57
1910-1945     69
Arts and Culture     95
1946-2005     105
Bibliography     126
Index     127

Editorial Reviews

Title: Book review: Images of America: Baton Rouge
Author: Jeff Roedel
Publication: 225 Extra
Date: 11/24/2008

LSU's Associate Dean of Libraries Faye Phillips and author Sylvia Frank Rodrigue follow up their acclaimed Baton Rouge: An Illustrated History with an entry in the popular Images of America series for Baton Rouge. With its roving lens capturing the character of the city from 1850 to 2005, the photography book is an archivist's dream. This is the stuff of delinquents and debutantes, of butchers, bricklayers and cadets—all the dirtied, bloodied and stalwart giants on whose shoulders our city stands.

Not quite a coffee table volume, the book is more field guide and condensed history of Baton Rouge with anecdotes accompanying insightful images from acclaimed photographers Andrew Lytle and Fonville Winans among others.

See William Tecumseh Sherman's superintendent portrait taken at what was to become LSU four years before the general's infamous and bloody "March to the Sea." Witness a train full of doughboys pulling out of the local station to serve in the trenches of WWI and Boy Scouts delivering King Bee tobacco to weary tent city dwellers after the great Mississippi River flood in 1927. Spy the State Capitol, Tiger Stadium and Southern University and sculptor Frank Hayden hammering out another masterpiece. Watch legendary actor Clark Gable schmooze with Gov. Earl Long's wife, Blanche, and observe LSU students protesting the Vietnam War.

The collection shows Baton Rouge not as a city defined by beige shopping developments or endless gated communities, but as one filled with the flaws and triumphs of a city of the South; one born during a war, reared by an oil refinery and wooed by politics and pigskin. Fortunately, many of the historic buildings and structures herein still stand as healthy reminders of where we've been and where we need to go.

From the Publisher