BGuthrie Photos: LA -- Audubon State Historic Site

LA -- Audubon State Historic Site:

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. AUDUBO_070129_001.JPG: John James Audubon at Oakley Plantation: From June to October of 1821, John James Audubon resided at Oakley Plantation tutoring the Pirrie's youngest daughter Eliza in music and art. While he was here, he took the opportunity to explore the grounds and the surrounding areas. Audubon was able to observe, hunt, and draw many of the species that would comprise his Birds of America series. He recorded many of his observations and experiences in his journal. "Three months out of the four we lived there were spent in peacable tranquility; giving regular daily lessons to Miss P. of Drawing, Music, Dancing, Arithmetick, and some trifling acquirements such as working hair and hunting and drawing my cherished Birds of America." -- Audubon Journal, 1821 "Martin's Hirundo Purpuent (purple martin) that leave this place daily, congregate with a parcel raised near Thompson Creek, about give miles from this and I have no doubt will take their flight from thence for their winter resort." -- Audubon Journal, 1821
2. AUDUBO_070129_042.JPG: The Aftermath of the Civil War: Research suggests that Oakley was virtually untouched during the Civil War, but neglect took its toll on the plantation. The owners during this period, Isabelle and William Matthews, relinquished the management of the plantation to the overseer. Isabelle chose to spend the war years in Federal-occupied New Orleans while William joined the Confederate Army. At the end of the war, the couple and their children lived in New Orleans for more than a decade. Oakley House was rented out and sharecropping replaced slavery as the institution that supported the plantation economy. A plantation ledger indicates that from 1887 to 1904, thirty-two tenant houses were built at Oakley. Typically, tenant houses resembled the old slave cabins and were roughly sixteen by eighteen feet. They were supported by brick piers and had fireplaces. Following the war, cotton production continued at Oakley through the sharecropping system. However, as more and more newly freed African Americans moved North for different opportunities, cotton production lessened. In 1889, Lucy and Ida Matthews, the two unmarried daughters of Isabelle and William Matthews, inherited Oakley Plantation. Despite the sisters; efforts, output diminished with each harvest, and life at Oakley was dramatically different from life prior to the Civil War. In 1946, the State of Louisiana purchased Oakley House and one hundred acres of surrounding land. Today, the plantation is preserved and protected by the Louisiana Office of State Parks and serves as a historical reminder of Louisiana's formative years.
3. AUDUBO_070129_091.JPG: The Cook's Room
4. AUDUBO_070129_095.JPG: The Cook's Room: This room is known as the cook's room because it was in this single room where the cook and her entire family would live. The plantation owners wanted the cook near the kitchen, so she would be close to her work and so that she would be nearby to receive her daily instructions. The cook's quality of living was anything but lavish. However, she and her family would receive higher quality clothes, compared to field slaves, because they would be regularly seen by guests of the family. Many times, their food was better than the field slaves' food because the cook and her family were sometimes allowed to have anything left over from the "Big House" meal. The cook's family would usually be assigned to jobs in or around the house. Her husband or older sons would usually have jobs such as gardeners, carriage drivers, or barn attendants. Older daughters would have such tasks as nannies or housekeepers. Even the younger children would have been expected to help clean, fetch water, or even make butter.
5. AUDUBO_070129_108.JPG: Kitchen: This room is known as the kitchen and it functions just like our kitchens do today. However, instead of having a stove and a microwave, it has an open cooking hearth. Open cooking hearths are simply larger fireplaces where cast iron pots could be hung over or sat around an open fire. A small bake oven is located to the right of the open cooking hearth. The bake over was used to bake the breads and many of the desserts that were prepared for the "Big House." All cooking in the 1800s was done in open cooking hearths. The cook's day would start before sunrise and would not end, until well after sunset. She was responsible for all the meals throughout the day and she was expected to keep a clean and tidy kitchen. This was no easy task, especially, since the kitchen temperatures could easily soar over 100 degrees during the summer months. The entire kitchen building has been rebuilt on the original brick foundation and around the original hearth and chimney. Today, the kitchen is still in use by the staff to present living history demonstrations to the public.
6. AUDUBO_070129_112.JPG: Kitchen
7. AUDUBO_070129_121.JPG: The Weaving Room: in the 1800s, the weaving room was actually a large pantry. It functioned just like the pantries found in our homes today. This is where the food for the plantation was stored throughout the year. The thick brick walls of the pantry made it a great place to store food because it provided slightly cooler temperatures which would help keep the food fresher for longer periods of time. Today, the room is used by the staff to exhibit the plantation's many spinning and weaving tools. These tools include various styles of spinning wheels, a large loom and a weasel. When people spun their own wool for weaving, they used a yard winder, or a weasel, to measure the yard into a skein. When the wheel went around enough to wind the length of the skein, the yarn winder was geared to make a "popping" sound. This let the person know that the skein was finished winding. The song "Pop Goes the Weasel" was possibly sang by children, while waiting for the "pop." Throughout the year, the site also presents living history demonstrations to the public that focus on the act of spinning and weaving. These demonstrations are designed to give the public insight on how complicated the process of turning cotton into cloth really is.
8. AUDUBO_070129_123.JPG: The Weaving Room
9. AUDUBO_070129_144.JPG: Slave gardens
10. AUDUBO_070129_154.JPG: The Slave Garden: Even though slaves worked hard on plantations, they received very little. This also applied to their meals. It was common practice on the plantation for salves to receive a monthly "allowance." This allowance usually consisted of a certain amount of pork or fish, cornmeal, roughly milled flour called "shorts," and on occasion molasses. ... To supplement this minuscule diet, many plantation owners allowed their slaves to have small gardens. These gardens could only be tended to, after the work of the plantation was completed. ...
11. AUDUBO_070129_164.JPG: The Slave Cabin: Prior to 1860, there is no historical evidence as of the actual number of slave cabins on Oakley Plantation. However, what is known is the number of slaves working on the plantation. James Pirrie had 65 slaves in 1820; Eliza Pirrie-Bowman had at least 245 slaves in 1840. Research conducted at Oakley Plantation and throughout West Feliciana revealed that there were two types of homes for the plantation's slaves. One type was a one-room frame dwelling that was set on wooden stumps. The cabin also had a front porch, front door, back door, side window, and a side chimney. The entire structure was about 18 feet wide and 17 feet long. The other type of cabin was the same style, only smaller. The other type was only 12 feet wide and 12 feet long. Both types of cabins are displayed here. Slave cabins were nearly empty on the inside. They were only furnished with the bare necessities. Dishes and cookware were either made by the salves or were "hand-me-downs" from the Big House. The most common item was the calabash. A calabash was a drinking cup made from squash that was dried and hallowed out. The furniture was very primitive as well. The bedding was nothing more than a burlap sack stuffed with Spanish moss, corn shucks, or hay. Wooden benches or small tables were for food preparation, but the floors or porches served as the families' dining areas.
12. AUDUBO_070129_259.JPG: Audubon's room
13. AUDUBO_070129_442.JPG: This is a piece of the original flooring cover
14. AUDUBO_070129_566.JPG: 1870 Barn: Family records indicate that this building was constructed around 1870 as a replacement for he earlier structure that was destroyed by fire. Historically, the barn was used to house a few animals, tack, agricultural equipment, and hay. It is the only original exterior building left at Oakley. The open area stretching out behind you was once known as the plantation yard. In this area, buildings that were essential for day to day plantation life could be found and may have included a smokehouse, dairy, blacksmith shop, weaving room, and carriage house. Today, these structures are gone, leaving behind only hints of their existence through the brick ruins that once served as their foundation.
15. AUDUBO_070129_573.JPG: Tack Room: This room may have been used as the tack storage area. After use, the saddles, bridles, corn husk yoke pads, leather yoke pads, wooden yokes, and other pieces of harness would have been hung to keep them clean and to allow adequate ventilation in order to dry and to prevent rodents from chewing on the damp leather. For centuries, plows came in a variety of shapes and sizes according to the maker. In 1798, Thomas Jefferson improved the plow design using scientific principles but it wasn't until 1873 that James Oliver patents the first American plow with replaceable parts. The first harrow consisted of a plank with spikes protruding through the bottom. By mid-1800s, they came in various sizes and shapes from square, triangular, and even round, eventually developing into an assortment of discs or spring-toothed. They were used for plowing to break up dirt clots, level the ground, uproot weeds, aerate the soil, and to cover seeds.
16. AUDUBO_070129_577.JPG: Tack Room
17. AUDUBO_070129_607.JPG: In front is the Pit
18. AUDUBO_070129_610.JPG: The Pit: This structure, originally called a pit, allowed the plantation owners to enjoy fresh vegetables during the colder months of the year. The way it works was elegantly simple. The raised bed on the right side of the interior was filled with vegetable matter and animal droppings. The heat from the decaying plant and animal matter warmed the racks of clay pots that were suspended over the bed. The ground itself helped to insulate the pit. The temperature could be regulated by the opening or closing of the windows above it, which also allowed in sunlight to the growing plants.
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Wikipedia Description: Audubon State Historic Site
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Audubon State Historic Site is a state park property in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, between the towns of St. Francisville and Jackson. It is the location where noted ornithologist and artist John James Audubon spent the summer of 1821.

Visitors come to see Oakley Plantation house, where Audubon lived at the time, and the surrounding plantation grounds. A portion of the 100-acre (0.40 km2) site contains the forest which served as a setting for many of the 32 Birds of America paintings that Audubon created or began while at Oakley.

Plantation house

Built circa 1806, the Oakley Plantation house is an example of early Anglo-American architecture in Louisiana, located on its historic site. Its interior rooms have been renovated in the style of the Federal period.

Audubon spent four months at the home in 1821, teaching Eliza Pirrie, the teen-aged daughter of the plantation's owners James Pirrie and Lucretia "Lucy" Alston (Pirrie), to draw. This is when he completed his nature drawings on the site.

The house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 for its historical significance.
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2007 photos: Equipment this year: I used the Fuji S9000 almost exclusively except for the period when it broke and I had to send it back for repairs. In August, I bought a Canon Rebel Xti, my first digital SLR (vs regular digital) which I tried as well but I wasn't that excited by it. Trips this year: Two weeks down south (including Graceland, Shiloh, VIcksburg, and New Orleans), a week at a time share in Costa Rica over my 50th birthday, a week off for a family reunion in the Wisconsin Dells (with sidetrips to Dayton, Springfield, and Madison), a week in San Diego for the Comic-Con with a side trip to Michigan for two family reunions, a drive up to Niagara Falls, a couple of weekend jaunts including the Civil War Preservation Trust Grand Review in Vicksburg, and a December journey to three state capitols (Richmond, Raleigh, and Columbia). I saw sites in 18 states and 3 other countries this year -- the first year I'd been to more than two other countries since we lived in Venezuela when I was a little toddler. Ego strokes: A photo that I took at the National Archives was used as the author photo on the book jacket for David A. Nichols' "A Matter of Justice: Eisenhower and the Beginning of the Civil Rights Revolution." I became a volunteer photographer at both Sixth and I Historic Synagogue and the Civil War Preservation Trust (later renamed "Civil War Trust").. Number of photos taken this year: 225,000.
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