The house that story built: The place of slavery in plantation museum narratives

P Carter, DL Butler, DH Alderman - The Professional Geographer, 2014 - Taylor & Francis
P Carter, DL Butler, DH Alderman
The Professional Geographer, 2014Taylor & Francis
This article examines the characteristics and opinions of tourists visiting Laura Plantation
Museum in southern Louisiana, paying close attention to their interest in slavery relative to
other narrative themes presented at the site. Laura is noted for its “big house” as well as its
remaining slave quarters, but museums are built as much around narratives as they are
around artifacts. Museums tell a story that they hope audiences will want to consume.
Envisioned as an audience study, this research examines data gathered from surveys and …
This article examines the characteristics and opinions of tourists visiting Laura Plantation Museum in southern Louisiana, paying close attention to their interest in slavery relative to other narrative themes presented at the site. Laura is noted for its “big house” as well as its remaining slave quarters, but museums are built as much around narratives as they are around artifacts. Museums tell a story that they hope audiences will want to consume. Envisioned as an audience study, this research examines data gathered from surveys and interviews conducted at Laura and uses the conceptual framework of “narrativized worlds” to gain an understanding of how visitors, especially African Americans, interpret and react to the representation of antebellum life offered by the museum's managers and docents.
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