New exhibit at Red House looks at Lorimier family

A new exhibit on Louis Lorimier will debut Saturday, May 6 at the Red House Interpretive Center.

Entitled "The Lorimier's: A Metis Trader Family on the Missouri Frontier," the exhibit is a dream come to fruition. Director of exhibits, Linda Nash, said the exhibit has been an idea since the opening of the Red House. Mannequins of Lorimer and some family members dressed in period clothing are featured.

In the works for about a year, the exhibit was accomplished by Nash's careful research and cooperation from the federally recognized Western Delaware, Eastern Shawnee and Absentee Shawnee tribes as well as National Expansion Museum historians to present an authentic representation of the period costumes mixing European and Native American styles. Tribes will be contributing items for the exhibit as well.

Nash has contributed to the costumes herself, creating skirts and leggings for a Delaware woman thought to be a friend of Charlotte Penampieh Bougaineville, Lorimier's wife and Bougaineville herself.

The garments are hand-stitched and meet standards for period correct sewing and correct regard for fabric and pattern selection.

Other individual costumes featured in the exhibit include Louis Lorimier and his teenage son, Vernieul.

The exhibit represents French trader Pierre Louis de Lorimier's (Cape Girardeau's founder) mixed-blood family, a result of his intermarriage with the woman of the Shawnee tribe he traded with and subsequent trade bonds from the close, personal relationship.

The exhibit can be seen at the grand opening or during regular Red House hours, Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. or by special group appointments with Convention and Visitors Bureau by calling 335-1631.