Juneteenth 2025

We invite visitors and members of the public to join us to celebrate the final reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, held in Galveston, TX on June 19, 1865. We will honor and tell the stories for the twenty-seven individuals known to have been enslaved by Ruggles and Olive Morse in New Orleans, whose lives and journeys before, during, and after enslavement we continue to uncover and share with visitors.

Since 2021, our Unwilling Architects Initiative has prompted extensive research that has begun to discover much about these enslaved persons, whose uncompensated labor in Louisiana contributed to the fortune that built Victoria Mansion. Through this ongoing effort, we endeavor to shine a light on these individuals’ lives and bring their stories into the full human history of this landmark property.