May 2012.

So it’s summer in the city, and while the mornings and evenings around these parts are often still very pleasant, the middle of the day can be wicked. What to do? What to do? Fortunately, in the French Quarter there’s plenty to do where you’ll never break a sweat. The Monteleone’s rooftop pool comes to mind of course (Fun fact: Joe Frazier trained on the rooftop for his fight with Muhammad Ali and guests could pay a dollar to watch), and then there are the myriad museums scattered across the Quarter.

“To protect the paintings and artifacts, the temperature is kept at a constant 72 degrees,” explains Arthur Smith from the Louisiana State Museum about why a visit is even more appealing in the summer. “Even better in this oppressively muggy city: interior humidity [in the museum] ranges from 51% to 54%.”

Among the paintings being protected is this one from the current exhibition, New Orleans Bound 1812: The Steamboat That Changed America, at The Cabildo on Jackson Square, which traces the voyage of the New Orleans, the first steam-powered vessel to navigate the Mississippi River, and its lasting impact on the nation’s economy, culture and society. It features a scale model of the steamboat New Orleans and photographs, paintings, historic documents and artifacts from 19th century steamboats.

Built in Pittsburgh by a consortium of investors including Robert Fulton, Robert Livingston and Nicholas Roosevelt, the New Orleans reached its namesake city on Jan. 12, 1812, after an adventure-packed four-month voyage. Within a few decades, thousands of steamboats were operating on America’s waterways leading to the dramatic growth of cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati and Memphis. Steamboat travel also stimulated the spread of ideas and culture, producing uniquely American expressions in literature, art and music.

A quick trip out the door and a few feet across Jackson Square and you’re back in the air-conditioned comfort of the Presbytere Museum, which houses Living with Hurricanes: Katrina & Beyond which the Associated Press called “A stunning exhibition…”

Happily, forecasters are predicting a calmer-than-usual storm season ahead.

Details on these exhibits and more are HERE.

Note that the Cabildo will be closed to the public for five days from June 25 to June 29. Why? To install a new, bigger and better, air-conditioning system!

Could this be New Orleans' most literary address?

The last time I was in the Hotel Monteleone prior to working on this story was as a volunteer for the Tennessee Williams Literary Festival in March, and it’s hard to imagine a more appropriate setting. The Monteleone’s Carousel Bar was a frequent haunt for Williams, where he gleaned material for his work from the conversations going on around him. He spent a two-week period at the hotel in the fifties, and Frank Monteleone picked up the tab as a thank-you to Williams, who brought New Orleans and the Hotel Monteleone national attention with A Streetcar Named Desire. The landmark also figures heavily as a symbol of the city in The Rose Tattoo.

Ernest Hemingway always stayed at the hotel when he visited New Orleans and it's referenced in his story “The Night before Battle.” Truman Capote claimed to have been born in the hotel—only a slight bit of creative license, his mother did go into labor while staying at the Monteleone, but managed to get to Touro Infirmary in time for the delivery.

The list of literary links goes on. Rebecca Wells' Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood and Little Altars Everywhere, Stephen Ambrose's Band of Brothers, Richard Ford's A Piece of My Heart, Eudora Welty's A Curtain of Green, Gerald Clarke's Capote: A Biography; Erle Stanley Gardner's Owls Don't Blink (written under the pen name A.A. Fair), and Harry Stephen Keeler's The Voice of the Seven Sparrows are all said to include passages inspired by the Monteleone. Anne Rice and John Grisham are also among the hotel’s guests, and in June 1999 the hotel was designated an official literary landmark by the Friends of the Library Association. The Plaza Hotel and Algonquin Hotel in New York City are the only other hotels in the United States that share this honor. There are even special suites created in honor of Williams, Welty, Hemingway, Faulkner and Capote.

You’ll find a complete history of how an immigrant shoemaker from Sicily created a hotel destined to become a literary landmark here. Even better, stop by the gift shop to check out an MP3 audio tour that lets the history unfold around you as you wander through the Monteleone’s historic halls.

April 2012. The first boat to pass through the Plaquemine Locks is highlighted in an exhibit at the Iberville Museum.

April 2012. Faces from the Past: Mary Manhein and her staff create images of unknown soldiers who died 150 years ago.