A New Orleans Tradition Since 1964

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The Musée Conti Wax Museum is currently CLOSED

The WAX will re-open after a brief retirement at Jazzland Theme Park.

EDUCATIONAL PACKET

These materials were for use at the former site in the French Quarter. New educational packets will be available when Jazzland Theme Park opens.

Educational Packet
Click here to download 11 pg pdf
Subjects covered: Costumes, Dix Note, Louisiana Purchase, Louisiana Legends Crossword Puzzle, Quiz on The Battle of New Orleans


Ideas for Lesson Planning | Pre-planning Tips | Time Line | Chamber of Horrors


Ideas For Lesson Planning

Social Studies/Language Arts |  Music/Arts |  Science/Math |  Extra |  Topics

Social Studies/Language Arts

Discuss life in Louisiana 300 years ago with no stores, farms or roads. Whole class activity - divide into groups of people present in 1700s: Native Americans, French Canadians, enslaved Africans and Europeans. Have one member from each group talk about how they could pool knowledge to provide for shelter and food. Follow with small groupings composed of persons from each land and plan short skits. Then have the students each write their impressions of life 200 to 300 years ago. (Spread over several lessons.)

*Check Curriculum guides and new standards for related concepts, map skills and vocabulary words.

Questions for discussion/writing:

How did people long ago get water for drinking and bathing? At the WAX, Students will see Napoleon taking a bath. His tub has no faucets (year 1803). Activities relating to this can reinforce learning objectives in science, health.

Why did American boatmen coming to New Orleans in the 1700s walk back home instead of taking their boats back upriver? Students will meet these boatmen at the WAX, prepare them by talking about river currents and the importance of the invention of the steamboat in the early 1800s.

Rules for the sport of boxing are a little over 100 years old, why do you think these rules and the use of a referee are needed? Students will see a representation of the first heavyweight fight held under the Queensbury rules on their visit to the WAX? Did you know it was held in New Orleans?

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Music/Art

Locate recordings for early New Orleans-style Jazz music. After listening, students can research/write about such greats as Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton. They are depicted at the WAX along with Pete Fountain and a scene from the New Orleans Opera House. (Compare music?)

Show class pictures done by John Audubon, have students read about his life in Haiti and in Louisiana. Ask the students to sketch a real plant in their classroom, then to attempt depicting a live animal or bird. Discuss the difficulties and try to find out how Audubon solved some of these problems.

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Science/Math

How long will your field trip take?How many days went into pre-planning? How many days in a school year? Months? How long have you lived? Compare with time covered by the WAX Museum. if there is a time-line in your classroom, compare this with time of written history. (Estimates of time of pre-recorded history can be a mind-boggling bonus and can lead to activities and discussions of archeology.)

You may want to include calculations of budget and trip costs and attention to mileage to the museum. Routes taken can be highlighted on a map posted in the classroom.

Madame Pontalba is shown in the WAX museum with an ironworker holding a piece of a cast iron balcony. Why is this important (besides the fact that decorative cast iron balconies are associated with New Orleans in the minds of many) and how is this different from the mush older form: hand forged wrought iron? Research the history of iron and craftsmen from Europe and Africa.

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Extra

The last part of the Musee Conti Wax Museum is the "Lagniappe" of the Chamber of Horrors. This too is educational as it is based on literary masterpieces by such greats as Edgar Allen Poe, Victor Hugo, Mary Shelly and Robert Louis Stevenson. These may also reinforce learning objectives.

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Topics

There are many topics worth exploring that can enhance your learning activities, They include: Development of Laws, Civil Rights, Effects of Slavery, Language Heritage in Louisiana, The Battle of New Orleans, Weapons Through the Years, Clothing Fashions and Changes, Roots of Creole Cooking, and Mardi Gras Customs and Costumes.

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Pre planning tips:
  • Fall and winter are our "slack" times so we can give you more attention then - remember, we are an "all-weather" destination. We can even provide you with a sheltered space for your students to picnic.
  • Want to focus on one particular historical figure or era? Request a costumed storyteller for a small extra fee.
  • Songs to learn before the visit that are mentioned in your visit include: "The Star Spangled Banner", "If Ever I Cease To Love" (Mardi Gras Theme), "Battle of New Orleans" and Jazz numbers.

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Time Line
 
1699
1717
1752
The Rediscovery of the Mississippi River - Iberville, Bienville, Father Douay and Choctaw Indians
A City is Planned - duc D'Orleans, John Law, Prince de Conti
Arrival of the Casket Girls - Ursuline Convent

1768
1785
1803
Death of the Creole Patriots - Spanish vs. French Creoles
American Boatsmen vs. Spain at New Orleans - Governor Miro
Napleon Decides to Sell Louisiana - Napoleon, Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte

1803
1803
1815
Signing the Louisiana Purchase - Robert Livington, James Monroe, Francois Barbe-marbois
Planning the Battle of New Orleans - Jean Lafitte, Dominique You, Governor Claiborne
Battle of New Orleans - Andrew Jackson, Lafitte's pirates, frontiersmen from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi, African Americans both free and enslaved, Jordan Noble, General Packenham, Scottish Highlanders. (Chalmette Battlefield)

1815
1816
1821
British Rockets at the Battle - in Washington DC - Star Spangled Banner composed by Francis Scott Key, also William Congreve's rocket.

History of Craps and The Word "Dixie"

Bernard Marigny and Jim Bowie

The Plan to Rescue Napoleon

Napoleon House today


1834
1840
1845
The Haunted House of The Evil Madame Lalaurie
Pepe Llulla, Duelling Master on Exchange Alley

Cruelty of Slavery (site of The Omni Royal Orleans Hotel today)


1850
1851
1855

Baroness Pontalba Builds her Buildings (Flanking Jackson Square Cathedral)

Marie Laveau The Voodoo Queen
Voodoo Dancers in Congo Square (Louis Armstrong park today)

1862
1825
1950

Ben Butler and Father Mullon, P.G.T. Beauregard (Civil War)

Visitor to New Orleans Marquis de Lafayette

Visitors: Duke and Duchess of Windsor (Great Britain)

1872
1886
1892
Visitor: His Imperial Highness Alexis Romanoff Alexandrovich (Russian)

BeMark Twain and the Riverboat Gamblers

1st Boxing Match with Gloves: Corbett and Sullivan Fight


1910
1859-1880
1891

 

Storyville District: Lower Basin St. - Birthplace of Jazz, etc.

Theatre in New Orleans, Jenny Lind, Enrico Caruso,
John Wilkes Booth, Sarah Bernhardt

Mass Lynching in New Orleans - Cruelty to Italians


1986
1900
Mardi Gras Indian Chief Edward Montana

 

Mardi Gras in Miniature - 400 Block of Royal Street


1852
1994
1935
John James Audubon

74th King of Zulu, Keith Weatherspoon

Louisiana Govenor: Huey P. Long

1996
1910
1990

Louisiana Govenor: Edwin W. Edwards

Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong

Pete Fountain

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Chamber Of Horrors
  • The Body Snatchers - Robert Louis Stevenson
  • The Corpse in the Waxworks - John Dickerson Carr
  • The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
  • Dracula - Bram Stoker
  • Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo
  • The Pit and the Pendulum - Edgar Allen Poe
  • Murders in the Rue Morgue - Edgar Allen Poe
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