This was actually some years ago,now.  From November 1997 through January
1998, we at Cane River Creole National Historical Park sponsored this
traveling exhibit in Natchitoches, Louisiana.  It is a beautiful exhibit,
many photos you would recognize from Vlach's book plus others f rom the
Library of Congress collections.  There was quite a stir when it debuted at
the Library.  The exhibit was moved to the Martin Luther King branch library
(I believe, it's been a while), where African Americans, among the many who
viewed it, were not offended, but appreciated the illumination it provides
of our shared history.  Politics, mainly . . . the name of the exhibit was
changed after the furor to "The Cultural Landscape of the Plantation."
 
Carolyn Breedlove
Executive Director
Kent Plantation House
Alexandria, Louisiana
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-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Derry <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Saturday, February 06, 1999 4:32 PM
Subject: Back of the Big House
 
 
>I was just catching up on some reading and found a comment in  Volume 21 of
>the CRM publication put out by  the National Park Service about how the
>exhibit "Back of the Big House" generated so much criticism at the Library
>of Congress that it was hastily removed from display.   I'm assuming this
>was the exhibit associated with one of my favorite publications "Back of
the
>Big House, the Architecture of Plantation Slavery" by John Michael Vlach.
>Does any one out there know the specifics of the controversy and removal?
I
>sure many of us work on plantation sites and could benefit from this news.
>
>Linda Derry ([log in to unmask])
>Old Cahawba Archaeological Park
>Alabama Historical Commission