“Unwrapping the Tignon” with Curator Stacey Wilson

“Unwrapping the Tignon” explores why a simple head wrap made history in New Orleans in the late 18th century. Women across the world wore head wraps for centuries before Governor Esteban Miro introduced the Edict of Good Government, informally known as the Tignon Law, and continue to do so today. The unique history and culture of Louisiana, not just New Orleans, plays a large role in the creation of the tignon, but the driving factors are jealously and control. Join Stacey Wilson in a discussion of the tignon and viewing of “Woman in Tignon” on display now in “Spotlight on the
Collection: Portraiture.”

Stacey Wilson is an alumnus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette undergraduate Public History program and the Texas State University-San Marcos graduate Public History program. Her love of early Louisiana history led her to focus her studies on antebellum Louisiana and to write her thesis,
“Reviving the Old South: Piecing Together the History of Plantation Sites,” which examines the ways plantations are interpreted and provides ways to interpret their histories in an inclusive manner.