A popular member of the Secretary of State museum family is the Louisiana Cotton Museum. Located in Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish, the museum is 35 miles north of Interstate 20 on U.S. Highway 65.

The museum opened its doors in March of 1995 and is dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of cotton cultivation, and its influence on life in Louisiana. To meet this goal, there are currently four exhibits on display: The History of Cotton, The Impact of Cotton on Westward Expansion, The Impact of Cotton on Society and Culture and The Impact of Cotton on the Economy. The last exhibit is subdivided into Technological Advances, The New Orleans Cotton Exchange and The Uses of Cotton.

THE HISTORY OF COTTON

This exhibit begins with an overview of the origins of cotton and its eventual cultivation throughout the world. It concentrates on the period from 1820 to the 1930's, in which cotton became the United States' preeminent crop, directly affecting many facets of everyday life.

THE IMPACT OF COTTON ON WESTWARD EXPANSION

This display explains the advance of the cultivation of cotton from the Eastern seaboard westward which was greatly facilitated by the invention and widespread use of steamboats and railroads. Cotton also helped establish New Orleans as a major port.

THE IMPACT OF COTTON ON SOCIETY AND CULTURE

This exhibit interprets the influence of cotton on the development of class and culture. Cotton played a dominant role in the Southerner's life; it shaped social classes and artistic creations such as literature, paintings and songs.

THE IMPACT OF COTTON ON THE ECONOMY

Technological Advances

Details the major inventions that affected cotton and its development, such as Samuel Slater's construction of the first cotton mill in 1790 and Eli Whitney's development of the cotton gin in 1793.


The New Orleans Cotton Exchange

This exhibit chronicles the history of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange with photographs and statistics.

The Uses of Cotton

This exhibit discusses the processing of cotton and the final products obtained.

THE HOMER GIN -- LOUISIANA'S FIRST ELECTRIC POWERED COTTON GIN

The Gullet Gin Company in Amite manufactured the machinery in the Homer Gin. Founded by Benjamin David Gullet, it was the only gin making firm in Louisiana, and one of only four or five in the United States at the time.

Born in North Carolina, Benjamin Gullet moved west with the cotton kingdom and began making saw gins in Aberdeen, Mississippi, where he took his first of three gin patents. After his factory burned down in 1862, Gullet relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Five years later the Mystic River Hardware Company of New London, Connecticut, put his famous "Steel Brush Gin" into production. Mystic continued its investment in Gullet by opening a factory in Amite, Louisiana named the Gullet Gin Company with Gullet himself in charge of production. The Gullet Gin Company continued well into the twentieth century and was eventually absorbed by Moss-Gordin and then Continental Gin Company.

Opened in 1928 as the Newman and Kinnebrew Gin in Homer, Louisiana, it was probably the first electric-powered gin in the state and utilized the latest industrial ginning system. It ceased operations in the 1940s as cotton "played out" in the hill parishes. The machinery was never upgraded to handle mechanically picked cotton, and was eventually dismantled, restored and reinstalled in a new building at the Louisiana State Cotton Museum.

The Homer Gin represents the technology and work conditions experienced by the last generation to know the dominance of the cotton industry in their lives. In the 1920s, cotton gins such as this one were spread across north Louisiana, sometimes only a few miles apart, serving an economic need as well as being a center of community activity during the harvest season.

Gins are a necessary ingredient in cotton culture in the United States. The machines themselves remove the tenacious seeds from the fiber of the upland cotton plant, making the fiber available for manufacturing into cloth. The development of the sawtooth gin technology in the 1790s was a pivotal event in United States history. Within a generation, cotton became the young nation's number one export, contributing to the growth of shipping in New York City and New Orleans, textile manufacturing in New England, and westward expansion into the Mississippi River valley.

By the twentieth century, cotton culture had a grip on most of the agricultural, rural South. The ginning business was being separated from plantation operations and small farmers and planters alike could take their cotton to new commercial gins, such as the Homer Gin, that employed efficient industrial systems. These gins were factories that had machinery not only for removing the seeds from cotton but cleaning it and packing it in bales for shipment.

[This exhibits interprets the social and economic history of the gin and were made possible by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.]

---

VISIT THE COTTON MUSEUM

All Cotton Museum exhibits are being expanded and will include rotating and temporary displays as well as outdoor exhibits. A new 3600 square foot facility is scheduled to be built and will house permanent and rotating exhibits as well as an audio visual auditorium.

For information, call (318) 559-2041, or write to the museum at 7162 Hwy. 65 N., Lake Providence, LA 71254. Send E-Mail to cotton@sos.louisiana.gov