Derby Gisclair
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derbygisclair.bsky.social
Derby Gisclair
@derbygisclair.bsky.social
New Orleans based published author, speaker, amateur photographer, and dilettante historian. #baseball #boxing #horseracing #steamboats #nolasky #nola #neworleans #history #quotes Sorry but no DMs, no crypto, no porn, no requests for money.
"Money, horse racing and women: three things the boys just can't figure out."
~ Will Rogers

#quotes #HorseRacing
February 13, 2026 at 12:59 PM
... branch out into shipbuilding. He died in 1911 in Havana, Cuba.
February 13, 2026 at 12:50 PM
... and the paving of Lafayette Street in Belgian block. After arriving in New Orleans in 1872 from Hamburg, he went to work with the Schillinger Company and eventually went out on his own, at first from his home on Howard Avenue shown here. His business enterprises would later... (continued)
February 13, 2026 at 12:50 PM
Fritz Jahncke made his mark in New Orleans as a paving contractor specializing in Belgian block and vitrified brick street pavement. Among his most ambitious projects was the paving of the newly completed Audubon Place private residence district ... (continued)

#nolasky #nola #neworleans #history
February 13, 2026 at 12:49 PM
... resulting in four fatalities and many other serious injuries. Both engineers died immediately. Newspapers referenced the "fatal switch," alleged conductor and brakeman fault, and charged that no warning lights were in use.
February 12, 2026 at 10:46 PM
In the summer of 1891, there was a head-on train collision that occurred on the Illinois Central Railroad line near Sauvé station. The I.C.R.R.'s "Cannon Ball" mail and passenger train smashed into a Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City freight train, ...(continued)

#nolasky #nola #neworleans #history
February 12, 2026 at 10:45 PM
If you missed the last Third Thursday Lecture don’t worry – on Thursday, February 19, 2026, at 7:00pm at the East Bank Regional Library at 4747 West Napoleon in Metairie. Historian and author Edward Branley will be speaking on the history of the Allard Plantation and the origins of City Park.
February 12, 2026 at 2:56 PM
A Great Blue Heron strikes a pose.

#nolasky #nola #neworleans #birds #nature #photography
February 12, 2026 at 1:32 PM
“If you don't think too good, don't think too much.”
~ Ted Williams

#quotes #baseball
February 12, 2026 at 12:42 PM
After the lottery business had been terminated through state legislation, he became engaged in the timber export business. Photograph from The Historic New Orleans Collection.
February 12, 2026 at 12:37 PM
At this time, also, he was interested in the Louisiana State Lottery Company and was in the real estate business. He laid out Rosa Park, one of the early residential suburbs of the city of New Orleans. (continued)
February 12, 2026 at 12:37 PM
... remained 3 years, following which he was employed in the freight department of the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Railroad for about six months. In 1885 he became a member of the New Orleans cotton exchange, at a time when that organization was very young. (continued)
February 12, 2026 at 12:36 PM
... Civil War, as a staff officer under Gen. Van Dorn, and was one of the last men to leave Richmond. Harry Da Ponte received a high school education in the city of his birth, and when this had been completed, entered the service of the Slocum-Baldwin Hardware Co., where he ... (continued)
February 12, 2026 at 12:36 PM
This majestic home on St. Charles Avenue on the corner of Foucher Street was the home of Durant DaPonte, father of Harry Graham da Ponte II who was a lumber exporter Durant Da Ponte served in the Confederate army from beginning to end of the ... (continued)

#nolasky #nola #neworleans #history
February 12, 2026 at 12:35 PM
"I made a lot of mistakes out of the ring, but I never made any in it."
~ Jack Johnson

#quotes #boxing
February 11, 2026 at 1:03 PM
Although filmed in New Orleans, it luckily did not appear to permanently damage the city reputation as a film location. The movie bombed.
February 11, 2026 at 12:58 PM
It tells the story of a man (Josh Brolin) who is hunting down his captors after having been imprisoned for twenty years. Also appearing in the movie are Elizabeth Olsen and Sharito Copley. (continued)
February 11, 2026 at 12:58 PM
Oldboy: A 2013 film written by Mark Prorosevich and directed by Spike Lee is actually a remake/loosely based on a 2003 South Korean film of the same name, which was based on a Japanese film named Old Boy, which was loosely based on The Count of Monte Cristo. (continued)

#noasky #nola #neworleans
February 11, 2026 at 12:58 PM
There were also moon-towers in San Jose, California (1881), and Wabash, Indiana (1880).
February 10, 2026 at 10:42 PM
New Orleans was not alone in constructing moon-towers. In fact, there are several such structures still standing in Austin, Texas. Thirteen to be exact which are all that remain of the thirty-one towers they purchased from Detroit in 1894.Detroit retained ninety-one towers. (continued)
February 10, 2026 at 10:42 PM
The Southwestern Brush-Light Company was established in the city in 1881 with offices at 38 Union Street and a workshop on Union and Dryades Street. They were the exclusive licensee of “the Brush lighting apparatus.” (continued)
February 10, 2026 at 10:42 PM
On the left of the photo, you will notice the base of one of the ‘moon-towers’ that lined Carondelet Street starting on Canal Street. The installation of ‘moon-towers’ in New Orleans was part of the city’s ambitious modernization effort to bring arc lighting to the city in 1881. T(continued)
February 10, 2026 at 10:41 PM
... B. Fellman's, Werlein's Music Store, and Leopold Levy’s drapery store. This was the commercial hub of New Orleans, serviced by the numerous streetcar lines that can be seen in the center foreground. Sadly, the patriarchs of Shwartz and Fellman's stores died within months of the fire. (continued)
February 10, 2026 at 10:41 PM
On February 16, 1892, a devastating fire tore through what is now the 700 block of Canal Street, destroying the Touro Buildings. This image was taken shortly thereafter and shows the citizens of New Orleans staring at the ruins of A. Shwartz & Sons, ...(continued)
#nolasky #nola #neworleans #history
February 10, 2026 at 10:40 PM
Thank you!
February 10, 2026 at 6:20 PM