Daughters of Charity and Patient, US Marine Hospital #66, National Leprosarium ambulance, c. 1921. Image Courtesy of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, Permanent Collections. Carville, LA.

ID: 2331

This file appears in: Indian Camp Plantation / Louisiana Leper Home

Daughters of Charity and Patient, US Marine Hospital #66, National Leprosarium ambulance, c. 1921.<br />
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Image Courtesy of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, Permanent Collections. Carville, LA.

State health codes dictated the rules surrounding the conveyance of a person diagnosed with a quarantine-able disease like leprosy. Leprosy patients were denied the use of public transportation.

Only designated vehicles would be used to transport patients to the Louisiana Leper Home (1894-1920) which became the National Leprosarium (1921-1999).

This file appears in: Indian Camp Plantation / Louisiana Leper Home

Indian Camp Plantation / Louisiana Leper Home

By Elizabeth Schexnyder, Curator of the National Hansen's Disease Museum, Carville, LA

In the 1700s, Europeans settled this area known as Indian Camp and developed a plantation economy along the Mississippi River. Robert Camp, a planter from Virginia, began purchasing land here in the 1820s. He farmed sugarcane and owned about 100…