author

Thomas Ewing Dabney

A New Orleans journalist and historian, he wrote closely observed books about the city’s newspapers, port, and public life. His work has a local, documentary feel that makes Louisiana history seem immediate and lived-in.

1 Audiobook

The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans

The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans

by Thomas Ewing Dabney

About the author

Born in New Orleans in 1885, Thomas Ewing Dabney was a Louisiana writer best known for nonfiction rooted in the history and civic life of his home region. Records available online connect him with books including One Hundred Great Years: The Story of the Times-Picayune from Its Founding to 1940 and The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans, showing a strong interest in journalism, infrastructure, and the growth of the city.

Dabney’s writing appears in archives and Louisiana literary collections as part of a broader effort to document New Orleans as it changed through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rather than writing from a distance, he focused on institutions people actually lived with every day—newspapers, waterways, and the machinery of public life.

He died in 1970 at age 85. Even from the limited biographical record available online, his books suggest a careful chronicler of New Orleans who wanted to preserve the story of the city in detail.