Beauvoir

Beauvoir, the home and Presidential Library of President of the Confederacy Jefferson Davis, in Biloxi, Mississippi, was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. The combination of the storm surge and heavy winds destroyed Library Pavilion, a replica of a Civil War barracks where Davis wrote The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, and several original cottages on the 52-acre property, as well as removing the original and distinctive front porch.

Despite this extensive damage, plans for restoration are already underway. The main house, while disfigured, is structurally sound, and the original plans for the outbuildings have survived. The Presidential Library exhibition spaces were severely damaged, but the archives and records housed on the second floor were virtually unharmed. Although flooding swept away the porch, furniture, and collections, many artifacts have been recovered and are en route to Jackson, Mississippi, where they will await conservation treatment in cold storage. In addition, several teams of conservators and preservation officers have been to the property to assess the damage and restoration needs of the collection and the buildings and to perform emergency treatment on damaged objects. Beauvoir is a recent recipient of a $30,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant to place historic artifacts and documents in protective enclosures and relocate them to climate-controlled storage.