Here are two versions of the same picture. The top view is from the publisher's archive, the second is from the published picture postcard. Notice how the published picture has been edited (and before the days of computers), for example, by removing the little wagon behind the man in the center foreground. The clock in both pictures shows 10:52½. The photographer was standing between St. Charles (behind) and Carondelet (ahead). This is another good view of the short section of the “five track” system which had no center track. A Clio or Carondelet car at the left is starting across Canal into Bourbon Street, heading downtown, but it is a bit blurred and little detail can be made out. However, much detail can be found in the archival picture. The next three pictures are detailed closeups made from it.
In the first closeup, we have an excellent view of Peters Ave. car 258 as it enters the Carondelet/Bourbon intersection, lakebound on the inner track, heading for S. Rampart Street. This car was one of twenty, numbers 240-259, built in 1899 by the Jackson & Sharp Co. for the N. O. City RR. Initially purchased for the Prytania line, they also inaugurated service on the “Royal Blue” Napoleon line in 1903, and saw service on many other lines. Note the ladies in their long dresses and fashionable hats, and the umbrella mounted on a pedestal in the neutral ground, under which two gentlemen are finding shade from the hot sun. There are strings of light bulbs hanging above the street.
The second closeup shows a cluster of three streetcars just the far side of the Carondelet/Bourbon intersection. On our right, on the inner lakebound track, is “Palace” car 089 signed for the Magazine line. It is on its way to its terminal on N. Franklin St. just off Canal. Next to 089, on the riverbound inner track, is another Peters Ave. car, 332. This is an FB&D-designed car built in 1908 by McGuire, numbers 325-354. The third car in this group, number 140, is on one of the standard-gauge lines (unfortunately, its route sign is not readable), proceeding toward the river on the outer track. This is one of the 1896 cars 25-49 built by American Car Co. for the Canal & Claiborne RR Co., and renumbered 125-149 in 1899 when that company merged with the N. O. & Carrollton RR.
The third closeup (bottom picture of this group) shows some of the commercial signs prominent at the left, on the uptown side of Canal Street. The most prominent sign is the LAZARD'S (not “LAZARDIS”) sign, advertising some of the important brands of clothing that store carried (“Stein-Bloch Smart Clothes”). A little below that we can see a Katz & Besthoff Drugs sign. For many years, Katz & Besthoff was the most important drug store chain in the New Orleans area, and this was its first store. It was known for its purple trademark color. It was absorbed into the Rite Aid chain in 1997. The clock is also clearly readable, showing about a half-minute past 10:52.
In addition to the blurred streetcar crossing Canal Street, there are also at least eight more cars further down Canal, but details are impossible to determine. — Detroit Publishing Co. (second picture); Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection (first picture and closeups)