Pamela Arceneaux, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

Pamela Arceneaux, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Lawrence, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Lawrence, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Lawrence, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Magill, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Magill, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

John Magill, museum curator, discusses an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War.

The museum's curators discuss an exhibition of the earliest-known paper photos of New Orleans. The show, called “A Closer Look: The Antebellum Photographs of Jay Dearborn Edwards, 1858-1861,” features three dozen images of a thriving southern city on the brink of the Civil War. On view from October 1, 2008-February 20, 2009.

French at Heart: Continental Influence in the Gulf South is the theme of the 2011 Antiques Forum. Madeleine Deschamps, PhD, Adjunct Professor at the New York Univserity School of Continuing and Professional Studies, presents The French Empire Style and Its Influence in the American South.