Archaeology
Marie Thérèse Coincoin
Coincoin, a formerly enslaved woman freed in colonial Natchitoches, is an icon of American slavery and Louisiana’s Creole culture.
Archaeology
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
Poverty Point Culture
This entry covers prehistoric Poverty Point culture during the Late Archaic period, 2000–800 BCE.
Archaeology
Historical Archaeology in Louisiana
Archaeologists at sites across Louisiana help fill in the written record through physical excavations of the past.
Archaeology
Troyville Culture
Dating to the Late Woodland Period, from 400 to 700 CE, the Troyville Culture is named for an archaeological site in Catahoula Parish.
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
Gretna City Hall
The Gretna City Hall building is conventional in its Beaux-Arts forms, but, squeezed onto its narrow site, it is a compact composition with a vertical emphasis.
Architecture
Presbytere
Along with the Cabildo and St. Louis Cathedral, the Presbytere figures as a major component in New Orleans' Jackson Square.
Architecture
Charles and James Dakin
Louisiana architects Charles Dakin and James Dakin designed the Old State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, as well as the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, among other projects.
Architecture
Laura Plantation
Laura Lacoul Gore, the namesake of Laura Plantation, left a memoir that proved to be an important resource for the restoration of the house.
Art
Art IndexArt
Elemore Morgan Sr.
Photographer Elemore Morgan, Sr., made an important visual record of mid-twentieth-century folkways, rural life, indigenous architecture, and landscapes in Louisiana.
Art
Clementine Hunter
Clementine Hunter was an Afro-Creole artist who is best known for her paintings depicting scenes from African-American life on the southern plantation in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.
Art
Auseklis Ozols
Artist and teacher Auseklis founded the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts in 1978.
Art
Skylar Fein
Largely self-taught and working primarily in wood sculptures, Skylar Fein graphically combines pop-culture icons and revolutionary texts into artwork with embedded political critiques.
Business & Industry
Business & Industry IndexBusiness & Industry
Louisiana Maneuvers
During World War II, central Louisiana became the site of training maneuvers to prepare the United States Army to engage in Germany’s new blitzkrieg-style warfare.
Business & Industry
Jean Baptiste Roudanez
A radical civil rights advocate during the Civil War and Reconstruction, Jean Baptiste Roudanez helped found two historic Black newspapers.
Business & Industry
World War II Industrialization in Louisiana
The United States’ entry into World War II spurred Louisiana’s recovery from the economic doldrums of the Great Depression.
Business & Industry
Samuel Zemurray
Samuel Zemurray was key to creating a global banana industry that generated great wealth, often at the expense of Latin American laborers, democracy, and economic development.
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
Cancer Alley
Located along the Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana, Cancer Alley is home to the highest concentration of heavy industry in the United States, with residents reporting high rates of cancer, heart disease, respiratory illnesses, and autoimmune disease.
Disasters
SS Kentucky Disaster
On June 9, 1865, the SS Kentucky capsized in the Red River south of Shreveport, marking the second deadliest inland maritime disaster in US history.
Disasters
Hurricane Gustav
Hurricane Gustav was the first major storm to test New Orleans’s rehabbed defenses after Hurricane Katrina.
Disasters
Steamboat Princess Disaster
On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
Cajun Dance Halls
Cajun dance halls–salles de danse– are live music venues where dancing, courtship, and community building transpire.
Folklife
Voudou
Voudou, a synthesis of African religious and magical beliefs with Roman Catholicism, emerged in New Orleans in the 1700s and survives in active congregations today.
Folklife
Cajun Folklife
Cajun folklife is a field of study that describes, catalogs, and deciphers meaning within the vernacular culture of Acadian refugees who settled in Louisiana.
Folklife
Herbert Singleton
Self-taught artist Herbert Singleton created dramatic scenes of the rough New Orleans environment into which he was born, using found objects such as salvaged doors, driftwood, and discarded furniture.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Po-Boy Sandwich
The so-called poor boy (po-boy) sandwich originated from the Martin Brothers' French Market Restaurant and Coffee Stand in New Orleans during the 1929 streetcar strike.
Foodways
St. Joseph Altars
Catholic Louisianans of Sicilian descent erect altars laden with fresh produce, baked goods, and other foods to honor Saint Joseph.
Foodways
Calas
Fried rice cakes known as calas were once ubiquitous among New Orleans street vendors.
Foodways
Crawfish Boils
Crawfish boils are a springtime ritual in Louisiana.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Bourbon Street
The origins of the notorious adult playground
Geography
Fontainebleau State Park
The Fontainebleau State Park bears the name of Bernard de Marigny's sugar plantation, which formerly occupied this site and was itself named after the estate of the French king Francois I.
Geography
Natchitoches Settlement
The Natchitoches settlement, founded in 1714, is the oldest in the Louisiana Territory.
Geography
Sherwood “Woody” Gagliano
Woody Gagliano sounded the alarm on Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis and worked with his colleagues for decades to remedy the problem.
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
Luis Unzaga y Amezaga
Luis Unzaga was the third Spanish governor of Louisiana, serving from 1769 until 1777.
Government, Politics & Law
Antonio de Ulloa y de la Torre Guiral
Explorer, astronomer, and administrator Antonio de Ulloa was the first Spanish governor of Louisiana, serving from 1766 to 1768.
Government, Politics & Law
Louisiana Farmers’ Union
An interracial organization formed at the height of the Great Depression, the Louisiana Farmers’ Union sought to provide assistance to Louisiana farmers.
Government, Politics & Law
Frank A. Monroe
Frank Adair Monroe served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1914 to 1922.
History
History IndexHistory
Milliken’s Bend
At Milliken’s Bend the majority of Union forces were formerly enslaved men whose valor was heralded to increase military recruitment among free African Americans.
History
Women in Colonial Louisiana
Women constituted a valuable asset in colonial Louisiana.
History
Robert Charles Wickliffe
Democrat Robert Wickliffe, who served as the governor of Louisiana from 1856 until 1860, oversaw the state in the increasingly tumultuous years before the Civil War.
History
Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum
The LSU Rural Life Museum is an outdoor complex of southern rural vernacular buildings located in Baton Rouge.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
George Washington Cable
The writings of George Washington Cable explored the Creole culture and generated national attention.
Literature
Yusef Komunyakaa
With more than ten published volumes of poetry, Yusef Komunyakaa is a widely celebrated and anthologized poet.
Literature
Cleanth Brooks
Cleanth Brooks, one of the foremost American literary critics of the twentieth century, spent fifteen years as a professor in the English Department at Louisiana State University (LSU).
Literature
Local Color Fiction
Local color fiction was a literature genre popular with American readers between 1870 and 1900.
Music
Music IndexMusic
J. D. Miller’s Recording Studios
J. D. Miller’s recording studios in Crowley are best known for recording South Louisiana musical genres but the studio leaves a mixed legacy, having produced a series of racist songs in the 1960s.
Music
Bobby Charles
Bobby Charles made enduring contributions to the overlapping genres of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and swamp pop, as both a recording artist and a songwriter.
Music
Ken Colyer
Born in England, Ken Colyer was nonetheless a catalytic figure in the Traditional New Orleans Jazz Revivial which began in the late 1940s.
Music
William “Bill” Russell
Bill Russell was one of the most prominent figures in the study and documentation of traditional New Orleans jazz.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Cajuns
Cajuns are the descendants of Acadian exiles from what are now the maritime provinces of Canada–Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island–who migrated to southern Louisiana.
Peoples of Louisiana
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is the largest of four federally recognized tribal governments in Louisiana.
Peoples of Louisiana
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe
The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe is one of only four American Indian groups in Louisiana recognized by the federal government.
Peoples of Louisiana
Anglo-Americans
While Louisiana began as a French colony and its dominant culture remained Creole French well into the nineteenth century, Anglo-Americans began to form a significant minority in region the late colonial period.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & Spirituality
Judaism in Louisiana
Jewish people have greatly contributed to Louisiana’s culture and economy as philanthropists, civic and educational leaders, business owners, and art patrons.
Religion & Spirituality
All Saints Day
All Saints Day or All Hallows Day is a Catholic tradition honoring the saints and also deceased family members each November 1.
Religion & Spirituality
Marie Laveau
Marie Laveau was a free woman of color born in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Laveau assumed the leadership role of a multiracial religious community for which she gave consultations and held ceremonies. During her time, she was known as "The Priestess of the Voudous"; among many other colorful titles.
Religion & Spirituality
St. Peter Street Cemetery
Thousands of New Orleans’s eighteenth-century residents are interred at the site of the St. Peter Street Cemetery in the French Quarter.
Science & Technology
Science & Technology IndexScience & Technology
Cholera in Louisiana
During the nineteenth century, cholera epidemics caused tens of thousands of deaths throughout the state of Louisiana.
Science & Technology
World War II Industrialization in Louisiana
The United States’ entry into World War II spurred Louisiana’s recovery from the economic doldrums of the Great Depression.
Science & Technology
Hurricanes in Louisiana
Louisiana hurricanes have played an essential role in the state’s history from colonization through the present and are as memorable as the places and people they impact.
Science & Technology
Sherwood “Woody” Gagliano
Woody Gagliano sounded the alarm on Louisiana’s coastal land loss crisis and worked with his colleagues for decades to remedy the problem.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
Roland Hymel
Roland Hymel was an archery champion at Loyola University who also won a contest to name the New Orleans Saints football franchise.
Sports & Recreation
Audrey Patterson-Tyler
Tyler was the first African American woman to win an Olympic medal.
Sports & Recreation
Howie Pollet
Howie Pollet was one of three left-handed pitchers from the same New Orleans block to make it to baseball's major leagues.
Sports & Recreation
Rolland Romero
Rolland Romero was the youngest member of the 1932 US Olympic team and the world-record holder in his event at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany.
