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A picture of The Eagle Band was published on the front page of The Item on March 1, 1916. It was the first picture of a New Orleans jazz band ever published in New Orleans. / The Times-Picayune

Jazz has a long history in New Orleans, but acceptance of it came slowly. In 1838, The Picayune noted a mania in the city for horn playing, while in 1853, an editorial mentioned the growing number of brass band funerals being held.

According to a Picayune report in 1853, brass bands played somber dirges on the way to the cemetery and “gay and lightsome” airs on the return. Today, most brass bands that play funerals follow the same practice.

In a 1918 editorial headlined “Jass and Jassism,” The Times-Picayune called it a matter of civic pride to deny New Orleans was the cradle of jazz. This was a year after the first jazz recordings by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a local group.

The Eagle Band, featuring “Big Eye” Louis Nelson Delisle, Abby “Chinee” Foster, Frankie Duson, Buddy Petit, Lorenzo Staulz and Dandy Lewis, was pictured on Page 1 of the New Orleans Item on March 1, 1916. It was the first time the newspaper had published a photograph of a New Orleans jazz band, although it was not identified as such.

In 1993, the newspaper published “Jazzmen: The End of the Beginning,” a series paying homage to the music and its masters. Among those featured was Milford Dolliole, who took up drums when he was 15.