Qualla: Confederate Memorial Hall Museum

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum: Introduction

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. On May 29, 1893, the body of Jefferson Davis arrived at a stone hall on Camp Street in New Orleans. More than 60,000 people filed past the open casket of the former Confederate president, paying their respects before his remains continued their journey to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. That building -- Confederate Memorial Hall -- had been open for only two years at the time, yet it was already becoming a repository for the most personal relics of a defeated nation. Today it stands as Louisiana's oldest museum, housing over 5,000 artifacts from the Civil War era, the second-largest such collection in the world.

Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans | CC BY-SA 3.0

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum: Stone and Memory on Camp Street

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Infrogmation of New Orleans, CC BY-SA 3.0. The hall itself is a monument. Completed in 1888, it was designed by the architectural firm Sully & Toledano in the Richardsonian Romanesque style, echoing the heavy arches and rough-hewn masonry of the adjacent Howard Memorial Library designed by H.H. Richardson himself. Frank T...

Image: Infrogmation of New Orleans | CC BY-SA 3.0

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum: Uniforms, Flags, and a Crown of Thorns

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit U.S. Geological Survey, Public domain. The collection reads like a catalog of the Confederacy's most prominent figures. The personal effects and uniforms of generals Braxton Bragg and P.G.T. Beauregard occupy prominent displays. Over 140 regimental and Confederate flags hang preserved behind glass, their fabric frayin...

Image: U.S. Geological Survey | Public domain

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum: A Building Under Siege

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kaihsu Tai, CC BY-SA 3.0. The museum's most dramatic battles have been legal ones. In the 1940s, the adjoining Howard Library outgrew its space and relocated to Tulane University. The old library building eventually passed to the University of New Orleans, which converted it and a neighboring property int...

Image: Kaihsu Tai | CC BY-SA 3.0

Confederate Memorial Hall Museum: The Compromise That Saved the Hall

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit NastyCanasta, CC BY-SA 4.0. It took a governor to broker peace. Mike Foster intervened in the dispute, and in August 2003 both parties agreed to drop their lawsuits. Under the compromise, UNO would cede its title claims to the Memorial Hall building and land in exchange for the construction of the basement ...

Image: NastyCanasta | CC BY-SA 4.0