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The Historic New Orleans Collection
HNOC in the News

In NOLA.com Guest Column, HNOC Historian Discusses “Captive State” As Public History Project

October 20, 2025

Curator Eric Seiferth explains how HNOC’s 2025 exhibition and companion book serve as an important public telling of privately known truths.

A tour guide gestures towards an exhibition display at HNOC.
NOLA.com / The Times Picyaune
CAPTIVE STATE cover

Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration

softcover • 9" × 11" • 106 pp.
57 color images
ISBN 9780917860942

$19.95

News

“Captive State” Book: Upcoming Local and Regional Literary Events

Related Exhibitions

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Exhibitions

Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration

July 19, 2024 to February 16, 2025

Related Stories

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First Draft

Inside Angola’s Prison Newspaper, the ‘Angolite’

First Draft

Poets Respond to “Captive State” in Verse

Related Collection Highlights

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A screenshot from a vintage color film shows part of a ship with the name "VERNON C. BAIN" written on the side.

“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 death notice for John Ward Gurley, dated 1808. The notice in the middle is surrounded with drawings depicting a skull and crossbones, funerial trees, a coffin, and broken column.

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.

A vintage sheet music cover titled The Mysterious Axmans Jazz (Dont Scare Me Papa). It shows a chaotic scene with musicians playing and a startled woman at a piano. Two inset portraits are at the bottom.

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.

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A painting depicting a New Orleans police car with two officers inside and a distressed Black man in the back seat. Another officer is in a second police car, and houses are visible in the background under a dark blue sky.
Resources

Reflecting on “Captive State”: How to Take Action

February 26, 2025
Explore resources from our curatorial team about how to advocate for change in America’s carceral system.
A historical museum exhibit features a large black-and-white photograph of an old prison building. In front, there is a wooden stock used for restraining prisoners, with openings for neck and wrists. The quote on the photo describes the harsh prison conditions.
HNOC in the News

Louisiana Weekly: HNOC Receives LEH Award for Louisiana Mass Incarceration Exhibit

January 29, 2026
Officials praised “Captive State” for addressing a difficult and often polarizing subject with scholarly depth while remaining accessible to a broad audience.
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