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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John Corley, associate editor at Louisiana State Penitentiary, discusses the history and operations of the award-winning periodical.
Death on Display
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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.
Hospital Banner Newsletters
An unusual periodical, written and produced by residents of the state mental hospital in the mid-20th century
Death Notice for John Ward Gurley
One hot-headed young upstart in early 19th-century Louisiana found his way onto the dueling field, where the odds were not in his favor.
Related News
Innocence Project New Orleans to Honor HNOC with John Thompson Award for Courage & Justice
HNOC Awarded John Thompson Award for Courage & Justice
New Video Goes Behind the Scenes of “Captive State” Exhibition and Companion Book
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