NEWS RELEASE
JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA
November 13, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DERBY GISCLAIR TO DISCUSS NEW BOOK ABOUT MISSISSIPPI RIVERBOATS AT EAST BANK REGIONAL LIBRARY
JEFFERSON, LA – Derby Gisclair, author of a new book titled New Orleans Steamboat Stories – The Brief Lives of Mississippi Riverboats, will discuss the book at 7 p.m., Tuesday, November 28, 2023 at the East Bank Regional Library (4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie, LA 70001).
This event is free of charge and is open to the public. There is no registration.
Steamboats shaped America’s future, its economy, and its culture while expanding trade and expanding the country’s footprint into new territories. This economic expansion was not limited to New Orleans, but also to Cincinnati, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Memphis, Louisville, Nashville, St. Paul, Kansas City, and Chattanooga. A round trip voyage from Pittsburgh to New Orleans that once took six months could now be accomplished in forty-five days. At the same time steamboats made it possible to circulate and disseminate the news and the mail, to spread the various immigrant cultures, food, and music.
The steamboat continued to be the primary form of long-range transportation even as the railroads continued to expand their influence into freight transportation. Newer, bigger steamboats were built and by the end of the 1860s, the cotton trade had recovered and had surpassed their output from a decade earlier.
New Orleans Steamboat Stories contains stories of a handful of the different steamboats and the people who lived and worked on the Western rivers. They are brief in nature as the average life of a steamboat was generally short. But their impact culturally and commercially, esthetically and economically, made a lasting impact on the development of America.
A lifelong resident of New Orleans, S. Derby Gisclair is a member of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) and its 19th Century, Minor Leagues, Deadball Era, Oral History, and Pictorial History Committees. He heads the Schott-Pelican Chapter of SABR in Louisiana and is on the Nominating and Selection Committees for the Greater New Orleans Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.
He is the author of several books including Baseball in New Orleans, Baseball at Tulane University, The Olympic Club of New Orleans – The Epicenter of Professional Boxing, 1883-1897, and Early Baseball in New Orleans – A History of 19th Century Play. His most recent book, The Dixie Series, 1920-1958, was released on May 1, 2023.
He is working on a history of horse-racing and racetracks in New Orleans, a history of the New Orleans Pelicans, and a pictorial history of boxing in New Orleans.
For more information regarding this presentation, contact Chris Smith, Manager of Adult Programming for the library, at 504-889-8143 or wcsmith@jefferson.lib.la.us.
The Jefferson Parish Library system consists of 16 locations that stretch from the Lakeshore Branch on the edge of Lake Pontchartrain to the Grand Isle Branch just steps away from the Gulf of Mexico. The library system consists of two large regional libraries and seven branches on each side of the Mississippi River. The East Bank Regional Library (4747 West Napoleon Ave., Metairie, LA 70001) serves as library headquarters. More than 200 employees work for the Jefferson Parish Library including librarians, administration and support staff. For more information, contact the library at (504) 838-1100 or www.jefferson.lib.la.us.
For more information about Jefferson Parish, visit www.JeffParish.net. Residents can also receive regular updates by following the Parish on social media (@JeffParishGov) or by texting JPALERT or JPNOTICIAS to 888-777.
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Jefferson Parish Public Information Office 1221 Elmwood Park Boulevard, Suite 1002 Jefferson, LA 70123 |
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Gretchen Hirt Gendron, PIO |
