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C O M M U N I T Y
During the planning, preparing, and installation of every THNOC exhibition, the Preparation team—referred to familiarly as Prep—considers a multitude of factors to ensure the safety and longevity of the artifacts on display.
This process involves determining the risks inherent in exhibiting each type of artifact, from documents and books to furniture and sculpture. Once we’ve determined how to best handle and display the objects, the Prep team goes to work creating custom mounts, mats, and frames, climate-controlled enclosures, and display cases for every item in the exhibition. From time to time an object is deemed too fragile or sensitive for display, and in such cases we look to create a reproduction.
For our current exhibition Purchased Lives: New Orleans and the Domestic Slave Trade, 1808—1865, we sought to borrow the slave auction block purportedly used at a slave exchange located near the river, on Esplanade Avenue. However, curators at the Louisiana State Museum, the arti-fact’s permanent home, determined that it was far too fragile for transport between our facilities. Erin M. Greenwald, curator of Purchased Lives, felt that the auction block was integral to understanding the scale and scope of the domestic slave trade and requested that we build a replica to display in the exhibition.
ON THE JOB
Joseph Shores
POSITION: Preparator, on staff since 2013 ASSIGNMENT: Construct a replica auction block fc
To create the new auction block, we	in the >■	
visited the Louisiana State Museum’s	using v-	--
Cabildo site to take detailed notes, includ-	groove r	<e.
ing exact measurements (32 inches high by	Dec o'---	top
34 inches deep by eight feet long), and to	and bn;	_ rve
photograph the item, paying special atten-	the bl- •	
tion to the materials and methods used. It	Once	
appeared that the auction block’s maker,	part of	-in
likely a cabinetmaker, constructed the base	drav- -	
Preparator Joseph Shores examines the original slave auction t Cabildo site.
14 The Historic New Orleans Collection Quarterly