Exhibit at LSU's Hill Memorial Library preserves an essential thread in Acadian cultural identity

The story playing out in LSU's Hill Memorial Library won't jump out at you.

Absent are multimedia presentations and interactive digital screens. Those things would seem inappropriate in this tale of tradition.

That is, a Louisiana tradition that may have been lost if it weren't for a group of determined ladies who not only kept their craft alive but shared it with the world in a time when the internet was nonexistent.

Hill Memorial, in collaboration with the LSU Textile & Costume Museum, commemorates this tradition in the exhibit, “Woven Louisiana History: Acadian Textiles,” running through Dec. 13.

This exhibit tells the story of the Acadian tradition of spinning and weaving. Just the woven blankets lining the downstairs gallery walls are an indicator that this craft wasn't anything fancy. The blankets are tinted in browns, beiges and indigo and are limited in adornment. Why? Because they were made out of practicality.

These were blankets meant to be used, placed on moss-stuffed mattresses to keep families warm in winter. The people using them lived in south Louisiana and had been stripped of their culture and forbidden to speak Acadian French in schools.

So, the group of ladies highlighted in this exhibit came together to make sure their spinning and weaving culture was preserved.

"About two years ago when I first came to LSU, one of the things that attracted me was our collection of Acadian textiles at the LSU Textile and Costume Museum," said Michael Mamp, the museum's director and curator. "I was interested in this weaving tradition of an American subculture that was so distinct, and many people don't know about the history of weaving practices within the Acadian community of Louisiana."

Mamp also knew that Hill Memorial was blessed with a repository of records related to the Acadian Handicraft Project.

"This project began in 1942 as a way to preserve French language and culture in Louisiana, because in the early part of the 20th century, the idea was to suppress French culture," he said. "So, Louise 'Lulu' Olivier, who lived in Arnaudville, began, with the support of LSU, a program called the Acadian Handicraft Project in 1942. And she connected to makers around the state, finding a way for them to then earn a bit of an income from selling the things that they had made, and she sort of created a network that made it possible for those products to be bought and sold."

Sounds easy in this day of the internet, right?

"Everybody just gets on the internet now to do their connecting," Mamp said. "Louise Olivier did this without any of that, and she was successful. And their work went out not just in the state, but people from all over were wanting their items."

Demand came from throughout the country, even from some of the nation's first ladies.

Well, to be fair, the first of those first ladies lived in the White House long before the founding of the Acadian Handicraft Project.

"I think the first recorded first lady who was gifted with Acadian textiles was Dolly Madison," Mamp said. "Mamie Eisenhower was gifted with textiles when the project was still together, and Hillary Clinton was gifted textiles later, when Alice LeBlanc Clark was doing her own work. She was an expert weaver."

Clark's work continued the tradition long after the Acadian Handicraft Project came to an end in 1962. She passed down her craft to two modern-day weavers, Elaine Larcade Bourque of Lafayette and Austin Clark of Baton Rouge.

"Those are really the only two weavers left in the state who are making things," Mamp said. "But I knew that Hill had the archive, and I was interested in learning more about Acadian textiles, myself. So one of the first things I did when I came to LSU was approach the library about the possibility of a collaboration. And here we are."

At first, Leah Jewett wasn't too sure about just how much Hill's archives contained about the weaving process. She's the library's special collections exhibitions manager.

"When (Mamp) first talked to us about doing this, I knew we had the Acadian Handicraft Project files, although I wasn't really familiar with them," Jewett said. "At that point, I thought most of what we would have would just be the Acadian experience in Louisiana."

So, Jewett decided to start with Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1847 epic poem, "Evangeline," following the Acadian exile from Nova Scotia to Louisiana through the experiences of the title character. But Longfellow's text, to her surprise, offered something more.

"I thought, 'OK, we have a million editions of "Evangeline," so that's probably what we'll do,'" Jewett said. "But then when I started reading it again, and Longfellow's talking about spinning. He's talking about flax and wool, but that's where the tradition is."

So, Jewett began a treasure hunt of sorts in Hill's archives. Where, she wondered, did Longfellow get his information on this subject?

The archival dig led her to author Thomas Chandler Haliburton's 1829 book, "An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia," referenced as a source by Longfellow.   

That book led to others in the archives, which paved a path to the library's Acadian Handicraft Project files, whose photos, handwritten letters, receipts for handicrafts and other documentation, can be found in Hill's upstairs gallery.

The archival material is complemented by such artifacts from the Textile & Costume Museum as an 1858 spinning wheel, woven place mats created through the project, hand embroidered baptismal gowns, hand carders and brown cotton.

The brown cotton is a key ingredient because the story starts there.

"In Nova Scotia, they were accustomed to spinning with flax and wool," Mamp said. "And when they came to Louisiana, they had neither. So, they used brown cotton. They discovered brown cotton growing here, and because it wasn't something that they could make money from, they decided to figure out a way to use it for a practical purpose. So they started spinning and weaving brown cotton."

What may be plain in the eye of the visitor translates to an understated beauty for Mamp.

“The Acadian textiles held by the LSU Textile & Costume Museum are remnants of a once robust weaving tradition among the Acadians of Louisiana," he said.

And in the end, the exhibit does its part in continuing the story of this essential “thread” weaving through the history and cultural identity of the Acadians of Louisiana.

"Woven Louisiana History: Acadian Textiles" runs through Dec. 13 in LSU's Hill Memorial Library, 95 Field House Drive, LSU campus. Hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Admission is free. For more information, visit lib.lsu.edu/special.