The Hogan Archive supports the research and study of New Orleans music and culture from the late 19th century onwards. Founded in 1958, the archive began when Tulane University graduate student Richard B. Allen initiated a jazz oral history fieldwork project for his thesis. Dr. William Ransom Hogan, then chair of the Department of History, secured the initial funding for the project through a Ford Foundation grant proposal. Initially part of the Department of History, the Archive of New Orleans Jazz was transferred to the Howard-Tilton Memorial Library in 1965. After Dr. Hogan’s death in 1974, it was renamed the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive, and in 2020, it was further renamed the Hogan Archive of New Orleans Music and New Orleans Jazz. For more information about the name change and the new collection development policy, please refer to the 2020 news release.
The Hogan Archive's holdings include archival collections, business papers, personal papers, sound and video recordings, sheet music, photographs, ephemera, and various printed materials. The archive represents the musical cultures of New Orleans, encompassing jazz, ragtime, rhythm and blues, blues, gospel, Creole songs, and other forms of Black American popular music. These materials highlight the culture and communities of New Orleans and its surrounding regions from a music-based perspective. Additionally, the archive covers multidisciplinary subjects such as American history, ethnic studies, gender studies, architecture, sociology, race and representation, anthropology, cultural studies, marketing, media, and much more.