The work of New Orleans photojournalist Harold Baquet (1958–2015) is now a part of the New Orleans Historic Collection in a donation that was arranged by Baquet’s widow Cheron Brylski.

It marks the institution’s first complete photographic collection by a black photographer.

A seventh-generation New Orleanian, Baquet spent his years chronicling the administrations of Mayor Ernest N. “Dutch” Morial (1978–1986) and his successor, Sidney Barthelemy (1986–1994). Along with politics, he also worked to capture African-American life in New Orleans.

The HNOC is now the only institution with the photographer’s comprehensive archive. Because of the extensive size of the archive, any additional material is retained by the New Orleans Public Library’s municipal division and Loyola University’s campus library.

Items from the donation will become available to the public as they are processed; to check their availability, contact THNOC’s reading room staff at (504) 523-4662 or [email protected].