In NOLA.com Guest Column, HNOC Historian Discusses “Captive State” As Public History Project
Curator Eric Seiferth explains how HNOC’s 2025 exhibition and companion book serve as an important public telling of privately known truths.
Eric Seiferth, HNOC curator and historian
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration
softcover • 9" × 11" • 106 pp.
57 color images
ISBN 9780917860942
$19.95
“Captive State” Book: Upcoming Local and Regional Literary Events
Related Exhibitions
Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration
Learn how the institutions of slavery and mass incarceration are historically linked, and how these connections have made Louisiana the world leader in incarceration today.
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Inside Angola’s Prison Newspaper, the ‘Angolite’
John Corley, associate editor at Louisiana State Penitentiary, discusses the history and operations of the award-winning periodical.
Death on Display
Louisiana’s travelling electric chair, and the shift from public to private executions
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“Vernon C. Bain” Christening Ceremony Video
When New York City’s war on drugs sent incarceration rates soaring, officials commissioned a floating jail built and christened downriver from New Orleans.
The Mysterious Axman’s Jazz
At the turn of the 20th century, a music-loving serial killer proclaimed that only jazz lovers would be safe from his reign of terror.
Hospital Banner Newsletters
An unusual periodical, written and produced by residents of the state mental hospital in the mid-20th century
Related News
New Video Goes Behind the Scenes of “Captive State” Exhibition and Companion Book
“Captive State” Book: Upcoming Local and Regional Literary Events
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