Exhibition Dates: October 1, 1994 - March 31, 1995

To coordinate with the 1994 world celebration of the International Year of the Family, the LSU Textile & Costume Museum gathered Acadian textiles, garments, household furnishings, and textile related tools from various private and public collections as well as from its own holdings.  The exhibition had as its design to illustrate the following:  the importance of textiles in the daily lives of Acadian families living in southern Louisiana; the various aspects of the production, use, and care of textiles by Acadian families in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and, the relationships between family heritage and textile production and use.  Included were rare patchwork quilts made from "cotonnade" hand woven garment fabrics and "bouton" and "cordon" hand woven bedspreads with hand knotted fringes.  Along with many sheets and blankets were some of the few remaining examples of hand woven garments.  Carding, spinning, and weaving tools and equipment used for washing and ironing illustrated production and care of textiles.  Acadian Textile Terms (Rabalais and Crousillac, 1994) defined unique Acadian terms.  Also included was an overview of the 1938-1962 Acadian Handicraft Project whose promotion of the Acadian culture and traditions involved Gladys Clark, an active weaver continuing her own family's weaving tradition.

Read more on our other past exhibitions