One of the signature events of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 was the failure of the levees of New Orleans. Seemingly impregnable earthen walls surmounted by concrete barricades turned out to be no match for the surging flood waters that turned Lake Pontchartrain into a force that devastated one of the nation's major cities.
From the earliest years of the city's establishment several feet below sea level, New Orleans has been at risk of catastrophic flooding. And yet the city's vital location at the mouth of the Mississippi River, taking in raw materials and finished goods and distributing them to the world, was too strong an economic force to be turned away. The threat of water inundation was nothing that good engineering and a few pumps could not overcome.
But some of the largest drainage pumps in the world were rendered useless on the morning of August 30th when some eighty percent of New Orleans became a part of Lake Pontchartrain. The great pump houses stood silent beneath many feet of flood water. The city that depended upon strong walls and the pumps behind them in order to stay dry had encountered a force of nature unlike anything it had experienced before: a large, strong hurricane sweeping vast quantities of ocean water into the lake at high tide.
Geological studies would later reveal that some of the earthen levees of New Orleans had been built on soft, peaty soils and that many of the concrete flood walls that topped the levees were poorly anchored. Several of these levees and their walls were undercut and then destroyed by the ponderous weight and power of the lake water.
To acknowledge the key role of the levees and walls in the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina, the Smithsonian selected several decorative chunks of concrete from the damaged floodwall along the London Avenue Canal at Mirabeau Street.
This floodwall's attractive concrete ribbing faced houses that stood within several feet of the canal, houses later destroyed by waters the levee intended to keep at bay.
"New Orleans, La. / The Mississippi River" printed on recto; people gathered on docks on left side of image; steamships on right side of image; African American men on dock
"The Mississippi River / New Orleans, Louisiana" printed on recto; horse drawn carriages in foreground pulled up next to a single level wooden building; steamships in background, stacks billowing smoke, docked at shoreline
Jelly Roll Morton. side 1: Levee Man Blues; side 2: The Storyville Story (Circle 83/84), from the album, Jelly Roll Morton, Volume 12: I'm the Winin' Boy (Circle Limited Edition #306). 78 rpm.
This recording is part of a limited edition 45 twelve-inch record set, The Saga of Mr. Jelly Lord. The set is comprised of interviews and musical performances of musician Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton (1890-1941) recorded by American ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) at the Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, from May 23, 1938 to December 14, 1938. In the interviews, Morton recounts his experiences, both in New Orleans and on the road, as a popular musician of the early twentieth century.
The Saga of Mr. Jelly Lord limited edition record set was issued by Circle Sound Inc., incrementally with two albums every three months, beginning in late 1947. The recordings were pressed on red vinylite. Album design and typography for this set was by Jimmy Ernst (born Hans-Ulrich Ernst, 1920-1984), a German-born American painter.
dock filled with basket, donkey drawn wagons and stacks of burlap sacks; multiple steamships line dock in background with smokestacks visible; people on docks near steamships; photographer Theodore Lilienthal; cotton
Albert Wynn's Creole Jazz Band with Punch Miller. side 1: Down By the Levee; side 2: She's Cryin' For Me (Brunswick 80042), from the album, Riverboat Jazz (New Orleans To Chicago) (Brunswick B-1010). 78 rpm. Side 1 was originally recorded in 1928 and released on Vocalion 1220. Side 2 was originally recorded in 1928 and released on Vocalion 1252. The album was released in 1943.