What do we mean when we talk about Cajun Country? The simple answer is that the term is synonymous with Acadiana, a 22-parish region settled in the mid-18th century by exiles from present-day Nova Scotia. About 3,000 Acadians arrived in South Louisiana from 1764 to around 1785, and now, more than 250 years later, their creolized name, Cajun (derived from the French Acadien), can be found everywhere: there’s the Ragin’ Cajuns, the athletic moniker of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL).

Calvin Dayes made shoes fit for a king, but more importantly, he made shoes fit for those who most needed them. For decades, Dayes crafted the thigh-high, white, kid-leather boots worn by Rex, as well as by other monarchs, on Mardi Gras. He also made custom orthopedic shoes for those with foot ailments. Regardless of the reason or the occasion for his specialty shoes, each finished piece featured a truly unique label: “By the JiveAss Shoemaker.”

In the marshes of Louisiana, where sediment-rich water mingles with the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico, plants, insects, and animals coexist within a thriving ecosystem to which humans have also adapted. Waves of people—of Indigenous, African, European, and Asian origin—have shaped the region’s culture and its ways of life. We share this place with a bountiful marine population, migratory and year-round birds, and such charismatic animals as the alligator and the crawfish.

The exhibition Unknown Sitters will display portraits from The Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings of people who are unidentified in the historical record. The sitters’ identities were lost or erased from history for a variety of reasons. When family estates were sold, beloved portraits were divorced from their historical narratives. Sometimes artists did not record the name of sitters, particularly when the sitter was a paid model.