Historic New Orleans Collection receives LEH award for La. mass incarceration exhibit

By Michael Patrick Welch

Contributing Writer

An ambitious exhibition exploring Louisiana’s long and complex relationship with mass incarceration has been named the 2026 Museum Exhibition of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH), officials announced last week in partnership with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser.

The honor was awarded to “Captive State: Louisiana and the Making of Mass Incarceration,” a major exhibition developed by the Historic New Orleans Collection (HNOC) that traced more than 300 years of history linking slavery, punishment and modern incarceration systems in Louisiana. The exhibition was presented free to the public at HNOC’s French Quarter campus from July 19, 2024, through Feb. 16, 2025, and drew more than 25,000 visitors during its seven-month run.

Developed over several years, “Captive State” examined incarceration not as a recent policy failure, but as a historical process shaped by colonial law, racialized punishment and economic incentives that stretch back to the state’s earliest days.

“We started work in 2017,” said Eric Seiferth, a historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection who served as lead curator of the exhibition and co-author of a companion book released in October. “Our team brought together an advisory board of academic experts, legal scholars, formerly incarcerated people, people who had survived violent crime – an incredible group of voices.”

The exhibition drew on a wide range of materials, including historical documents, photographs, manuscripts, court records, rare books and artifacts from local jails. Those materials were presented through a narrative framework designed to help visitors understand how Louisiana’s current incarceration rates developed over time.

“One of the first things visitors saw was a large graphic comparing Louisiana’s incarceration rates to the rest of the world,” Seiferth said. “Using 2022 data, Louisiana had about 600 people incarcerated per 100,000 residents. Mexico, by comparison, was at 174 per 100,000. Any way you slice it, Louisiana incarcerates more people than any other democratic nation, with Orleans Parish near the top within the state.”

Prominently displayed alongside those statistics was the exhibition’s central argument. “Our main thesis was written on the wall in large letters,” Seiferth said. “That Louisiana’s systems of slavery and mass incarceration are historically linked. That fact is non-negotiable.”

Rather than centering solely on contemporary data, “Captive State” traced incarceration back to the colonial era, beginning with the French Code Noir, which established racialized legal systems designed to enforce slavery and white supremacy.

“The colonial foundations set up laws and policing structures that persisted,” Seiferth said. “In the 19th century, New Orleans became the center of the domestic slave trade, with more people bought and sold here than anywhere else in the country. That’s when you begin to see chain gangs, forced labor, jails built specifically for enslaved people and governments profiting from incarceration. These are the roots of our modern policing and punishment systems.”

The exhibition continued through Reconstruction, Jim Crow and into the modern era, documenting how economic incentives and policy decisions shaped Louisiana’s reliance on incarceration. Today, Seiferth noted, roughly half of incarcerated people in the state are housed in local jails rather than state prisons. “The state pays local sheriffs to house inmates,” he said. “It’s cheaper for the state to pay jails than to house prisoners in federal prisons, and that financial structure has consequences.”

The exhibition also addressed more recent reforms and reductions, particularly in New Orleans.

Before Hurricane Katrina, the city’s jail population ranged from 7,000 to 8,000 people – nearly the size of the population at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.

“But over the last two decades, arrests have dropped significantly,” Seiferth said. “Today the jail capacity is around 1,400. That’s meaningful progress. Though they’re expanding the jail now.”

The Museum Exhibition of the Year honor is part of LEH’s annual Bright Lights Awards, which recognize individuals and organizations that deepen public understanding of Louisiana’s history, culture and people. The exhibition category specifically highlights projects that offer new insights into the state’s social and cultural development.

HNOC President and CEO Daniel Hammer said the award is especially meaningful as the institution marks its 60th anniversary.

“Receiving this recognition from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser during our 60th anniversary year is a profound honor,” Hammer said. “For six decades, our mission has been to use history as a lens to better understand the present. ‘Captive State’ reflects that mission and demonstrates how rigorous historical research can spark vital public dialogue.”

LEH officials praised the exhibition for addressing a difficult and often polarizing subject with scholarly depth while remaining accessible to a broad audience. The Bright Lights Awards aim to spotlight projects that not only preserve history, but also encourage civic engagement and thoughtful conversation – goals organizers said “Captive State” exemplified.

The exhibition has also earned significant recognition beyond Louisiana.

In 2025, “Captive State” received a Gold Exhibition Award, a Gold Technology Award and a Silver Technology Award from the Southeastern Museums Conference, honoring both its content and its innovative digital elements. It was also awarded the John Thompson Award for Courage & Justice from Innocence & Justice Louisiana for its contribution to public understanding of justice issues.

Lt. Gov. Nungesser, whose office oversees the state’s cultural institutions, has emphasized the role museums play in presenting complex and challenging stories about Louisiana’s past. The selection of “Captive State” underscores that role, highlighting how museums can foster informed discussion on issues that continue to shape the state.

HNOC will be formally recognized at LEH’s Bright Lights Awards ceremony on Tuesday, March 24, at the Capitol Park Museum in Baton Rouge. The annual event brings together cultural leaders, educators and community advocates from across Louisiana.

Although the exhibition has concluded, its impact continues through the accompanying book and ongoing conversations it has sparked.

“The exhibit is over,” Seiferth said, “but we’re proud that we can keep telling this story.” More information about “Captive State” can be found on the Historic New Orleans Collection’s website at hnoc.org/exhibitions/captive-state.

This article originally published in the January 26, 2026 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.