DESCRIPTION: Pictorial map (1952) of the New Orleans area to promote the Bayou Gardens attraction in Lacombe, Louisiana. The map spans the back two panels of a promotional brochure titled: "Bayou Gardens Lacombe, La. Beauty Spot of the Bayou Country."
Bayou Gardens was a 25-acre gardening attraction located north of New Orleans between Mandeville and Slidell. Bayou Gardens was founded in the late 1940's by convicted felon and former Louisiana Governor Richard W. Leche (1898-1965). In addition to a commercial nursery, swimming pool and a museum, according to the brochure "The Gardens contain one of the nation's outstanding Camelia collections, numbering hundreds of varieties."
Two-panel folding brochure with text on the recto.
The military detail on the map explains why civilian efforts depended so heavily on accurate local knowledge. Picket lines, rifle pits, and shelling notes mark areas where Confederate forces remained active and where movement involved real risk. The map therefore captures a moment when military necessity and civilian reconstruction were inseparable. Rather than illustrating a single engagement, it records how Northerners navigated, defended, and reorganized a newly occupied landscape while attempting, imperfectly, to replace slavery with paid labor, schooling, and basic civil order at the very beginning of Reconstruction.
The map is executed in pen and ink, with areas of water and terrain shaded in graphite. The graphite shading appears to have been produced using a textured aid beneath the paper, a method consistent with known mid-19th-century drafting practice for creating uniform tonal effects efficiently.
PUBLICATION DATE: 1952
GEOGRAPHIC AREA: United States
BODY OF WATER: Lake Ponchartrain
CONDITION: Very good.
 No condition issues. Two-panel folding brochure.
COLORING: None
ENGRAVER: 
SIZE: 7
" x
8 "
ITEM PHYSICAL LOCATION: 3
PRICE: $150
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