The Backstreet Cultural Museum

The Backstreet Cultural Museum, at 1116 Henriette Delille Street in the Treme neighbourhood of New Orleans, Louisiana, documents the Black cultural traditions of the city that exist outside the tourist mainstream. It was founded by Sylvester Francis, a Treme native who began photographing and filming the neighbourhood's second line parades, jazz funerals and Mardi Gras Indian gatherings in the 1970s and opened the museum in the late 1990s in a former funeral home building. Treme, one of the oldest African American neighbourhoods in the United States, was home to free people of colour before the Civil War and later to generations of musicians, and the museum records the customs that grew from that community. The collection includes the elaborately beaded and feathered suits of the Mardi Gras Indians, which are sewn by hand each year and can take months to complete, the regalia of Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, who organise the Sunday second line parades, Skeleton gang costumes, jazz funeral memorabilia, banners, umbrellas, fans and photographs. Francis's extensive video archive of parades is a central resource, and he often welcomes visitors personally and speaks about the traditions. The curatorial approach is intimate and immersive rather than formal, with the objects arranged densely in the small rooms and interpretation delivered through conversation. The museum is notable for the way it presents living traditions that continue each year on Mardi Gras Day, St. Joseph's Night and in the neighbourhood's parades. The building was damaged in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and was repaired and reopened. Visits are small-scale and usually take 30 to 45 minutes. Because the museum runs on an appointment basis at times, calling ahead is advisable.