Changing Landscapes: Jan Beauboeuf Along the Solomon Northup Trail

Changing Landscapes: Photographs Along the Solomon Northup Trail by Jan Beauboeuf, documents the current landscape of sites chronicled in Solomon Northup’s Twelve Years a Slave. Changing Landscapes features stunning landscape photography by Avoyelles parish artist Jan Beauboeuf along the Solomon Northup trail. The trail traces the path of kidnapped free man of color, Solomon Northup, who lived as a slave in Central Louisiana until his rescue and return to Sarasota, New York. Jan grew up in the rural Bayou Boeuf community near where Solomon spent some of his time in Louisiana. Now in her eighties, Jan Beauboeuf was a professor in Alabama during the civil rights era, where she was surrounded by discriminatory practices which caused her to move west. After returning to her childhood home in Louisiana, Beauboeuf connected with the Solomon Northup story, becoming intrigued with Solomon’s struggle to escape his captivity.


Changing Landscapes: Photographs Along the Solomon Northup Trail was made possible in part by a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. This exhibit will open at the Old State Capitol on Tuesday, January 18.

An opening reception will be held at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, March 6 with the presentation to follow.