An illustration showing a Black shoemaker near New Orleans's French Market.

Is It Worth Mending?—A Street Scene Near the French Market in New Orleans, 1889, by E. W. Kemble (artist) for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (publisher). HNOC, 1979.349

Made to Last

Black Craftspeople in Early New Orleans

Follow the lives of three craftspeople who used their skills as artisans to navigate Louisiana’s ever-shifting political, cultural, and economic landscape.

Made to Last

Black Craftspeople in Early New Orleans

Follow the lives of three craftspeople who used their skills as artisans to navigate Louisiana’s ever-shifting political, cultural, and economic landscape.

June 25, 2027 to January 9, 2028

520 Royal Street
Tricentennial Wing, 2nd Floor

Included with free museum admission

Throughout the colonial and early American eras, master craftsmanship gave enslaved Blacks and free people of color (gens de couleur libres in French) a rare path to advancement and financial security. As legal restrictions tightened, limiting the opportunities and rights of these populations, skilled trades provided a path forward.

Made to Last: Black Craftspeople in Early New Orleans presents case studies of three craftspeople—Jacob, a goldsmith; Emilie, a shoemaker; and Henry, a ship carpenter—who used their skills as artisans to navigate the opportunities and challenges presented by Louisiana’s ever-shifting political, cultural, and economic landscape. Clues about their lives found in the historical records show how Black craftspeople learned their trades, built their businesses, and created long-lasting legacies that can still be seen in New Orleans today.

Is It Worth Mending?—A Street Scene Near the French Market in New Orleans, 1889, by E. W. Kemble (artist) for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (publisher). HNOC, 1979.349

Louisiana armoire, between 1790 and 1815, attributed to cabinetmaker Célestin Glapion. HNOC, 2007.0312

Made to Last is a companion to Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence, a traveling exhibition from the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum highlighting the lives and careers of Black American craftspeople in the 18th and 19th centuries as documented in the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive. Made to Last supplements the broad scope of Fighting for Freedom with a more detailed look at artisans who lived and worked in New Orleans during the French and Spanish colonial era, the wave of immigration that followed the Haitian Revolution, and the decades of American statehood leading up to the Civil War.

Is It Worth Mending?—A Street Scene Near the French Market in New Orleans, 1889, by E. W. Kemble (artist) for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (publisher). HNOC, 1979.349

Louisiana armoire, between 1790 and 1815, attributed to cabinetmaker Célestin Glapion. HNOC, 2007.0312

Related Exhibitions

Exhibitions

Fighting for Freedom: Black Craftspeople and the Pursuit of Independence

June 25, 2027 to January 9, 2028

Explore the contributions of Black craftspeople in this traveling exhibition developed by the Daughters of the American Revolution Museum and the Black Craftspeople Digital Archive.

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Photograph of an unidentified Black craftsperson with a hammer

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