The National Hansen's Disease Museum and Archives
Visitors come to the National Hansen's Disease Museum (NHDM) to experience the story of Carville, the only National Leprosarium (leprosy hospital) in the United States. Starting in 1894, patients, doctors and other health care professionals lived, worked, and made medical history here as they battled leprosy - also known as Hansen's diease (HD). Patients, many quarantined for life, left behind photographs memorabilia and their stories.
Today, a patient diagnosed with HD is treated as an outpatient. In 1894, when the Louisiana Leper Home was established on this plantation site, a diagnosis of leprosy meant forced quarantine. There was little treatment and no cure. The diagnosis meant separation from family, home and community. The federal government took over in 1921 and patients from all over the U.S. began to arrive. Forced quarantine became obsolete by the 1960s, but some patients chose to remain. By 1999, with few resident patients reamaining, the National Hansen's Disease Program, under the aiges of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Sevices' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), relocated to smaller quarters in nearby Baton Rouge. The Louisiana Military Department has occupied the 400 acre site since 1999 and a handful of elderly patients and the National Hansen's Disease Museum remain as guardians of the past.
The museum was officially opened in July 2000. Its origins spring from the collection of artifacts for the 1994 Carville Hospital Centennial and the 1996 Daughters of Charity Centennial exhibits. For more information go to: http://www.hrsa.gov/hansens/museum
Information courtesy of Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator, National Hansen's Disease Museum
Image courtesy of NCDC, Public Health Image Library, Carville, and Jennifer Adkins
