This intimate history display started over a year ago. While working at an art and history museum, guests occasionally donate precious items they want to have preserved. So my adventure began with a wedding dress from 1933. It was a lavish Frech wedding that took place in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
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What can I say? I'm a sucker for curating exhibits. Not only are you organizing artwork and artifacts in a space, but you're also setting them up to create a flow, evoke emotions, and showcase someone's accomplishments. I just love the transformations of the spaces. While I was not expecting Haunted Histories and was caught off guard by it, it ended up being one of my favorite exhibits to ever work on.
So.. Haunted Histories explored the paranormal tales of Southwest Louisiana and by extension, the human fascination with death. I worked closely with Jeremy Royer from Old Number 7 Society, the Louisiana TAPS Family paranormal investigation team. They had a decade of materials acquired from investigations that I was only too happy to explore. I ended up splitting the exhibit into two main sections: Death and Paranormal Sites.
The Victorian Era section explored antiquated mourning and death etiquettes. The crown jewel of this area was the Civil War mourning dress on loan from the Smith Family. Other unique artifacts included a Victorian Era human hair wreath, an early 1920s Ingraham mantel clock, antique mourning lockets (some with hair still inside!), an antique flocked coffin, and a selection of porcelain dolls on loan.
We explored information on the mourning periods of the era, superstitions that involved covering mirrors, stopping clocks at the time of death, telling the bees, and death momentos.
The paranormal sites explored:
The Imperial Calcasieu Musem in Lake Charles, LA ACTS Theatre in Lake Charles, LA
Hyatt High School in Fields, LA
Ellis Hill on Hwy 109 between Fields and Starks, LA
The Gothic Hanging Jail in Deridder, LA
The Calcasieu Courthouse in Lake Charles, LA
Big Woods Cemetery in Edgerly, LA
Unique artifacts on display included: lighting from the ACTS theatre, jail keys from the Gothic Hanging Jail, the minutes and abstract from the Antioch Primitive Baptist Church that was once located at Big Woods Cemetery, and the library desk from Hyatt High School.
We also featured three local books that added another rich layer to the exhibit:
Lost Lake Charles by Adley Cormier
No Man's Ghost by Jeremy Royer
Louisiana Uknown by Jeremy Royer
I am very thankful for the contributors who made this exhibit even more amazing. Thank you all so much!
Contributors:
Brookin Alexander
Megan Smith
Amber Nicole
Gloria and Penelope Monks
Anna Alamond
Jeremy Royer
April Leigh
Kris Webster
Lori Darbonne
Tanya Welch
Kat Godsey
Jobi Arceneaux-Caldarera
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