The LSU Rural Life Museum in Baton Rouge preserves Louisiana’s rural past within Burden Museum and Gardens, a 400-acre agricultural research station operated by Louisiana State University. Through outdoor historic buildings and indoor collections, it traces the cultural influences that shaped the state, including French, Spanish, Native American, German, African, Acadian, and Anglo American traditions. Its three main outdoor areas interpret plantation life, including the lives of enslaved people, nineteenth-century settlement in northern and central Louisiana, and Acadian or Cajun domestic architecture. Artifacts, tools, furnishings, and farm equipment further connect these preserved structures to the work, religion, education, and everyday life of rural Louisiana.