British Pathé Archive: New Orleans

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Published on: May 23rd, 2015

More than 80,000 historical films from the British Pathé Archive are now available for free viewing on YouTube. The archive is the largest on YouTube and contains mostly news reels and movies spanning 1896 to 1976. While the collection is particularly rich in its materials from both World Wars, there are also many more lighthearted features, including footage from our own fine city.

The archive's New Orleans highlights include multiple years of Mardi Gras footage with plenty of reveler costume closeups; General De Gaulle's 1960 visit to the Crescent City; 1938 footage of a swamp tractor; and efforts to prevent flooding in New Orleans during the 1927 Mississippi flood.

There is also a wealth of excellent music-related footage. Searching with the simple terms of "blues" and "jazz," I was able to find films of WC Handy's funeral in 1958; a London jazz club in 1950; a 1963 piece that compares 'modern' jazz to traditional 1920s jazz (particularly Billy Jones and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band); and footage of an 'Oriental' jazz band during the First World War (though their instruments suggest they were likely playing music traditional to the region rather than jazz).

You can view the New Orleans-specific footage here: https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe/search?query=%22new+orleans%22

The entire archive is available here: https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe

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