Endangered Cemeteries Exhibit at State Archives

The Louisiana State Archives, 3851 Essen Lane, is hosting an exhibit featuring the state’s endangered cemeteries March 2-31. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and the first Saturday of each month, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The exhibit will showcase cemetery research documented by Jessica H. Schexnayder, with the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program at LSU, and Mary H. Manhein, with the LSU FACES Lab.

Begun in 2011, the Louisiana Endangered Cemetery Project creates a tangible link to the intangible past through GPS mapping, photography, oral tradition and cultural artifact documentation. It includes both coastal and inland cemeteries whose fates are questionable due to coastal erosion, storm inundation, urban neglect, subsidence, sea level rise and eminent domain. To date, 137 cemeteries have been documented.

For more information about the project, contact Schexnayder at [email protected], or 225-578-6448.

Ascension Catholic Cemetery near Donaldsonville is one of the 137 cemeteries document as part of the Louisiana Endangered Cemetery Project.