Processed by Mary LeBlanc
May 1995

Letters poems, articles, clippings and other documents pertaining to Adrien Rouquette, New Orleans-born priest, poet, and missionary who worked among the Choctaw Indians. The Choctaws gave him the name "Chahta-Ima." Also includes papers of his biographer, Dagmar R. Lebreton. Correspondents include Orestes Brownson, Abbé Perché, Monseigneur Blanc, John Dimitry, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Mainly typed transcripts and translations. French and English.

Folder

1. Letters and poems. 1848- 1895, n.d. French and English. Originals and negative photostats. Correspondents include R.W. Emerson, Isaac Hecker, Msgr. Perché and James McMaster. Also includes petition of citizens of St. Charles Parish to have Father Rouquette as their pastor and a translation of Emerson's "The Bumble Bee."
2. Letters. 1842-1846. French. typescripts. Correspondents include Abbé Perche, Msgr. Antoine Blanc, and Abbé Morisot.
3. Letters and papers. 1852-1879. English, French. typescripts. Correspondents include Longfellow, M.C.A. Brownson and John Dimitry. Also includes a review of "La Nouvelle Atala" from The Catholic World Oct. 1879, extrait de "La Femme et la Famille," La Journal des Jeunes Personnes, Paris, 1879, an English translation of "La Nouvelle Atala," and "In Search of a Word," typescript of article in New Orleans Bulletin by Walt Whitman regarding Whitman's visit to Pere Rouquette, 1875.
4. Clippings and printed material. 1858, 1879, n.d; also poems, reviews of "La Nouvelle Atala."
5. Reviews and correspondence copied and sewn together. 1852. MSS. Includes clipping of review from The Crescent of Wild Flowers, Sacred Poetry. 1848.
6. Letters. 1883-1884, n.d., to John [Dimitry] French and English translations; typescripts.
7. Letters and papers. Correspondents include Orestes Brownson. Also, "La Cabane dans le chene," by Rouquette plus English translation; extract from A Popular History of the Catholic Church in the United States by John O'Kane Murray regarding Rouquette; extract from New York Freeman's Journal; extrait d'une lettre de Davidson, auteur de Living Writers of the South sur le poème "Catherine Tegahwitha," with it a letter to John from Rouquette.
8. Obituary from Times-Democrat July 16, 1887. Typescript. Also includes certificate of ordination as sub-deacon (gift of Archbishop Janssens),neg. photostat., "Bayou Lacombe," paper about train trip to visit Pere Rouquette's monument near Bayou Lacombe, written by Mrs. Elder(?); telegram from "Rob" to N.Y. Times suggesting John Dimitry as knowledgeable about Rouquette. 1887; letters from Miss A.E. Mayes, niece of Mrs. John Dimitry, to Dagmar LeBreton re John Dimitry, 1942; draft of letter from Dagmar LeBreton to Mr. delaHoussaye re Cable - de la Houssaye controversy.