New exhibit at The Historic New Orleans Collection honors Louisiana’s coast

New Orleans ( WGNO ) — A new exhibit at The Historic New Orleans Collection is spreading awareness about coastal Louisiana and sending a message of hope to locals and visitors.

There’s a pine straw ball created by Hurricane Camille, dozens of wooden duck decoys from a private collection and one of the largest and most significant books on natural history.

Chief Curator Jason Wiese calls it a “deep dive” into the wetlands of the bayou state. The exhibit is named “A Vanishing Bounty,” and it’s a permanent exhibit at the museum on Royal Street.

“I think a lot of us are becoming increasingly concerned about the state of Louisiana’s coast, and this was an opportunity for us to explore that in an educational way. A way that hopefully is engaging to visitors of all ages, including very young visitors,” said Weise.

The exhibit also features a storyboard for kids that describes the life of a crawfish, alligator hide and a nutria pelt for visitors to touch and a historic cookbook with recipes for all kinds of nutria dishes.

A magnificent second edition of John James Audubon’s “The Birds of America” is a must-see, currently opened to the page featuring the state bird, the brown pelican.

Thanks to multi-media, you can see and hear all the birds in the folio. There’s a lot of information packed into a small space.

“I think it’s easy for those of us who just go about our day-to-day life here in New Orleans to forget that we live in a coastal city and that every day that passes, the Gulf of Mexico is getting closer and closer to us,” said Weise.

Cool off and check out this free exhibit to learn important lessons about healthy wetlands, how they thrive, and the many environmental and human threats to their welfare.

You’ll want to come back every few months, since they’ll be rotating the page on display from the “Birds of America” book.

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