A Living History: LSU Rural Life Museum Turns 50

A look at how the LSU Rural Life Museum got its start to become a historical and educational treasure for not only Louisiana, but the world. Explore the buildings that make up the museum from former slave cabins, to the homes of yeoman farmers, to the heart cypress homes of the first Acadians. As you learn about the early architecture, you’ll also learn about the early ways of life from farming and gardening to cast iron production. This documentary commemorates the 50th anniversary of the LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge, a 20-acre museum complex dedicated to preserving the history of the laboring class, both enslaved and free, in the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries in Louisiana. The museum is located on land donated by the Burden Family. This documentary explores the history and architecture of several buildings at the museum complex, including the slave cabins, the overseer’s house, the blacksmith shop, the church, the dogtrot house, barns, cabins, the Bergeron house, the shotgun house, and the controversial Uncle Jack statue. It includes interviews with: David Floyd, the director of the LSU Rural Life Museum; Eugene Cizek, architectural historian; Eddie Cazayoux, architectural historian; Marlon Poche, former resident of Welham Plantation; Judy Petit, former resident of Welham Plantation; Reverend Ricky Johnson, the pastor at Mt. Olive Baptist Church; and Rita Neal Paul, the granddaughter of Rita Neal Paul. Narrator: Donna LaFleur