At the oldest building in New Orleans, voices from the past come to life in new exhibit

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Completed around 1752, the Old Ursuline Convent in the French Quarter is said to be the oldest surviving building in the Mississippi River valley. Now the Old Ursuline Convent Museum, there’s a new exhibit marking 300 years since the Ursuline nuns arrived in New Orleans.

Sarah Waits, senior archivist at the Archdiocese of New Orleans, said back then, the sisters landed in a developing colony.

“It was a wilderness. They talk about the mosquitoes and the alligators and just a huge cypress forest, and there were buffalo grazing along the river. It was a wild place,” said Sarah Waits,

According to archdiocesan archives, 12 Ursuline nuns came to New Orleans in 1727 and eventually left the French Quarter in 1824. Waits said for many years, the Ursuline sisters served as spiritual leaders, nurses and teachers in New Orleans.

“The Ursulines were the social safety net for the entire colony. They were the ones to open the first orphanage. They had the first school for girls. They ran the military hospital,” said Waits.

Waits is curator of the new exhibit “Beyond the Veil: Voices from the Ursuline Convent.” Having real voices, Waits said, is central to the exhibit.

“So, we thought that by partnering with a local theater company, Goat in the Road to Productions, we could really bring their stories to life by having actual actors represent our five people,” said waits.

“Beyond the Veil” follows five people connected to the convent in the Ursulines’ first century in New Orleans.

It gives visitors a window into how they lived, how they dressed and where they came from.

Of course, there’s the backstory of nuns, but the exhibit also includes individuals like Jean-Baptiste, an enslaved man who came to play an important role at the convent as described by a voice actor in the exhibit.

“I was moved from the king’s plantation across the river to the convent along with my wife and children. We lived on the grounds, and I assisted as a surgeon and apothecary,” says a voice actor portraying Jean-Baptiste in the exhibit.

“We’re also telling the story of the first Creole-born Ursuline sister. Her name was Marie Turpin, and she was indigenous. We wanted to give victors a deeper and more diverse look into the convent’s history,” Sarah Waits said.

Waits said after the Ursulines left the convent in the French Quarter, it took on different roles. She said for a time, it was the private residence of the bishop of New Orleans. And when Archdiocese of New Orleans was established, the archbishop called the convent his private residence.

According to Waits, the convent was also briefly considered the seat of the state legislature. That rich history, Waits said, is not only undeniably Catholic, but also uniquely New Orleans.

“Beyond the Veil: Voices from the Ursuline Convent” opens on Oct. 31 at the Old Ursuline Convent Museum at 1112 Chartres Street in New in the French Quarter.

For more information, visit: https://oldursulineconventmuseum.com/beyond-the-veil-1

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