Spring is upon us and, with the low cost of gasoline these days, more and more people seem to be out driving their cars around town and out into the hinterland. The automobile is, of course, an inescapable part of our existence here in New Orleans as it is in the rest of the U.S. and in most of the world beyond. Automobiles have been a part of the Crescent City scene ever since J. Frank Pickering took some Picayune reporters for a ride in his battery-powered horseless carriage on Thursday, January 5, 1899. These selections from the Louisiana Division's photograph collections offer a sampling of the many automobile images on hand at the New Orleans Public Library.
Some cars travel the city's streets with ease.
This photograph was taken at Venus Street, looking toward Franklin Avenue. Some cars have to pick their way through traffic jams. These sturdy machines maneuver the mess at the foot of Canal Street back in the early 1950s. City traffic engineers have smoothed out some of the kinks at City Park Avenue, but the intersection can still be snarled during rush hour. This 1940 Buick, photographed next to the Criminal Courts Building, was involved in a negligent homicide accident on Burma Road in March, 1945.