During my time in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at the University of New Orleans, I threw myself into several research projects, mostly in the areas of New Orleans history and American cultural history. When I completed my MFA in 2012, I immediately entered UNO’s Master of History program on the public history track, writing my thesis on the Late Victorian bicycle club culture of New Orleans.
If you’re not keen to read a master’s thesis, you can also read about the early cyclists of New Orleans on my blog or on a virtual historical tour:
The Blog: Shadow Steeds in the Crescent City
Historical “Tour”: Shadow Steeds of the Crescent City
This one is really neat because you can do the ten-stop “tour” through the New Orleans Historical website or download the New Orleans Historical app to your phone for a geolocation enabled tour that includes historical images. Easily doable by bike or streetcar.
Articles
Beer and Tonic, With a Splash of Hysteria: Vaughan’s Lounge
Ritchie Betts: The Young New Orleans Cycling Promoter
Who Became “The Father of American Motorcycling”
Academie Gnostique: New Orleans’ School For Occult Science and
Traditional Mystical Education
Astride Lofty Wheels: Three New Orleanians
Ride New Orleans to Boston in 1886
The Brief But Significant Life of Audubon Driving Park
“Sh-h-h-h! Boom! Ah! Lou-is-i-an-a!”: A Short History of
the Louisiana Cycling Club
How the Greatest Freak Shows on Earth Came to Be
Freak-Sta-Grams: Social Media for Sideshows in the 1800s
Annie Jones and Other Badass Bearded Ladies
Bad Bitches of the Airwaves: These Divas’ Sultry Voices
Were the Stuff of GI Nightmares
Axis Sally: How an American Girl Achieved Nazi Fame
Out in the Street: The Cycling Community Gains Ground in New Orleans
A practiceable and enjoyable aid to locomotion
Neighbor in a Strange Land: Dave Eggers’ Zeitoun
The Past as Destiny, The Place as Self: Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul
If you are interested in my research or would like an article written for your publication, please contact me at lacar.musgrove@gmail.com.
Lacar Musgrove 