Bruce Boyd Raeburn Retires From Hogan Jazz Archive

After Bruce Boyd Raeburn moved to New Orleans in 1971 to work on his doctoral dissertation in United States Cultural History at Tulane University, he took a low-paying student worker position in the University’s library system in 1980 which introduced him to the Hogan Jazz Archive. Working his way up the ladder in a succession of positions, he achieved what he described as “his dream job” in 1989 when he became the fourth curator of the leading research center for the study of New Orleans jazz and related musical genres. Last month he retired after 46 years on the staff and headed off to Spokane, Washington, with his wife Linda for a more relaxed life of writing, consulting and lecturing on New Orleans music. The Hogan Jazz Archive was founded in 1958 as the Archive of New Orleans Jazz by Department of History chair William Ransom Hogan in response to an idea from a Tulane graduate student who was undertaking a jazz oral history fieldwork project for his thesis covering New Orleans jazz, ragtime, gospel, blues, rhythm & blues, and Creole songs. The Ford Foundation provided initial funding for the project. The Archive currently has over 2,000 reels of taped oral histor