Eunice

Beginning as a real estate venture on the isolated prairie of southwestern Louisiana in 1894, Eunice is now a progressive small city due to its traditions of volunteerism, community spirit, and resourcefulness.

In the late 1980s, the city enjoyed a renaissance when a far-sighted mayor capitalized on the dominant Cajun culture to pull Eunice out of the economic crevasse of the decade's oil bust. It emerged as a picturesque community with an emphasis on its rich history and its newly recognized heritage tourism. The city's unique Frenchness lures tourists and locals to the live Cajun music shows at the Liberty Center and to experience the joie de vivre at a rural Mardi Gras. These 15 historic black-and-white postcards feature the day-to-day activities of Eunice's people through good times and lean days from 1894 to the late 1980s.

Alma Brunson Reed and Van Reed have combined Alma's years of teaching Louisiana history and Van's of photographing the area to compile a pictorial treasury of Eunice. This visual history grew from the extant photographs of Tom and George Bevan, early photographers, and other vintage photographs of generous Eunice families.