Situated on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, the National Hansen's Disease Museum in Carville, Louisiana collects, preserves, and interprets the medical and cultural artifacts of the Carville Historic District, and promotes the understanding, identification, and treatment of Hansen's disease.



Immediately after Hurricane Katrina, Carville, Louisiana became the temporary home for thousands of National Guardsmen and public health officials assisting with the relief efforts. Museum Curator, Elizabeth Schexnyder, saw this as an excellent opportunity to take oral histories of the visiting military and medical personnel, in addition she also spoke with various volunteers who arrived in Louisiana to work after the storm for FEMA and animal rescue organizations. This collection contains 25 oral histories in digital audio files without transcripts.



Curator Schexnyder and friend Steven Singerman also photographed hurricane-damaged areas in nearby areas, including St. Bernard and Jefferson parishes and New Orleans. Those photographs are organized first by photographer and then by location.



Schexnyder and Singerman also traveled to the town of Delacroix, Louisiana in St. Bernard Parish where Schexnyder took 15 minutes of digital video footage of the destruction they encountered along the way on October 5, 2005.



The final section of this collection includes a few documents written by the Curator describing the transformation of Carville following Katrina, along with a history of the museum complex.