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The Historic New Orleans Collection
HNOC in the News

WGNO: Video Explores HNOC’s New “Captive State” Book

September 30, 2025

Available October 1, the book is a companion to HNOC’s award-winning exhibition of the same name that draws historical connections between slavery and mass incarceration.

Captive State book WGNO thumb 2

Watch: WGNO Covers “Captive State” Launch

CAPTIVE STATE cover

Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration

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Exhibitions

Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration

July 19, 2024 to February 16, 2025

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First Draft

Inside Angola’s Prison Newspaper, the ‘Angolite’

First Draft

Processing Hope and Loss in the Prison Portraits of “One Big Self”

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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.

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.

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.

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Exhibit wall with a blue panel stating, The institutions of slavery and mass incarceration are historically linked. A section titled CAPTIVE STATE features text and a colorful quilt with nature and wildlife motifs displayed on the right.
Press Release

“Captive State” Named Museum Exhibition of the Year by Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

January 15, 2026
HNOC joins eight other Bright Lights Awards recipients that were recognized for their significant contributions to the understanding of Louisiana’s history and culture in the humanities field.
Carceral City book cover
Press Release

HNOC, LHA Select “The Carceral City” to Receive 2024 Williams Prize

March 19, 2025
With powerful and evocative prose, author John K. Bardes boldly reinterprets relations between slavery and prison development in American history.
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