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.
Archaeology
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
LSU Campus Mounds
The LSU Campus Mounds are two Native American earthworks from the Middle Archaic Period located on the grounds of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
Archaeology
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.
Archaeology
Coles Creek Culture
Once covering most of Louisiana, the Coles Creek culture is known for its distinctive ceremonial mound sites.
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
Richard Koch
Louisiana architect and preservationist Richard Koch worked with the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in the state during the Great Depression.
Architecture
Cottage Plantation
Andrew Jackson was entertained at Cottage Plantation while en route to Natchez after the Battle of New Orleans.
Architecture
Chretien Point Plantation
Chrétien Point, the center of the Civil War's Battle of Buzzard's Prairie in 1863, is rumored to have been spared when its owner, Hypolite Chrétien II, gave the Masonic sign.
Architecture
Plaquemine Lock
The Bayou Plaquemine Lock once allowed ships to pass from the Mississippi River through the bayou to Louisiana's interior.
Art
Art IndexArt
Enrique Alférez
Sculptor Enrique Alférez's life spanned almost the entire twentieth century, with much of it spent creating art works in Louisiana.
Art
Sister Gertrude Morgan
In 1939 Sister Gertrude Morgan moved to New Orleans, where she became a missionary and street evangelist. Music, poetry, and art were the primary tools of her ministry.
Art
Paul Poincy
Though regarded as one of the best portrait painters in New Orleans's history, Paul Poincy's genre works are his most widely recognized.
Art
Andres Molinary
Born in Gibraltar, Andres Molinary settled in New Orleans in 1872 and became an active leader and teacher in the art community.
Business & Industry
Business & Industry IndexBusiness & Industry
Oil and Gas Industry in Louisiana
The oil and gas industry has been a dominant economic engine in Louisiana for well over a century.
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.
Business & Industry
Singer Submarine Company
The Singer Submarine Company operated a naval yard on the banks of Cross Bayou that built five Confederate submarines, four of which were sunk before seeing combat.
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.
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
Hurricane Rita
Making landfall in Cameron Parish on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most-intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.
Disasters
Belle Isle Salt Mine Collapse
Once one of the most productive salt mines in the country, the Belle Isle Salt Mine was the site of numerous deadly accidents.
Disasters
Yellow Fever in Louisiana
The last known epidemic of yellow fever in the United States occurred in Louisiana in 1905. Due to the intensity and frequency of these epidemics, it was often referred to as the "saffron scourge."
Disasters
Coastal Restoration
For a state experiencing land loss at an alarming rate, coastal restoration has become an urgent need.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
Gay Carnival
Since the mid-twentieth century, LGBTQ+ residents of Louisiana have contributed unique traditions to Mardi Gras celebrations.
Folklife
Baby Dolls
The Baby Dolls were one of the first women's street masking groups in the United States. The practice continues today as a living legacy.
Folklife
St. Joseph Altars
Catholic Louisianans of Sicilian descent erect altars laden with fresh produce, baked goods, and other foods to honor Saint Joseph.
Folklife
David Butler
Well known in for his audaciously decorated home and lawn, David Butler fashioned whimsical, brightly painted assemblages from salvaged roofing tin to become one of the twentieth century's most widely collected self-taught artists.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Crawfish Boils
Crawfish boils are a springtime ritual in Louisiana.
Foodways
Boudin
Boudin is a Cajun sausage made of meat and rice typically consumed with the filling removed from the casing and often squeezed directly into the mouth.
Foodways
Crawfish Étouffée
One of Louisiana’s renowned dishes, crawfish étouffée is typically comprised of crawfish cooked in its own juices with other seasonings and served over rice.
Foodways
Citrus Industry
Louisiana’s citrus industry traces its origins to the early 1700s, but the effects of climate change increasingly threaten its long-term viability.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Florida Parishes of Louisiana
A portion of Louisiana was once the western extremity of colonial Florida
Geography
Bayou Teche
Before railroads and highways, Bayou Teche served as an important transportation route deep into the fertile interior of south-central Louisiana.
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.
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
H. L. Billiot v. Terrebonne Parish School Board et al.
In 1917 the Louisiana court system ruled that Native people occupied the same legal status as African Americans under Jim Crow.
Government, Politics & Law
George Mathews
George Mathews served as the presiding judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana from 1813 to 1836.
Government, Politics & Law
Harry Lee
Harry Lee was the first Asian American elected to office in Louisiana and the first Asian American to serve as chief law enforcement officer of any major metropolitan area in the United States.
Government, Politics & Law
Alvin King
Alvin King served as governor of Louisiana for five months during a political power struggle between Huey P. Long and Lieutenant Governor Paul Cyr.
History
History IndexHistory
Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville
One of the wealthiest Louisiana residents of his generation, Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville was active in Louisiana politics and lucratively subdivided his New Orleans plantation, creating the neighborhood that still bears his name.
History
Paul Morphy
New Orleanian Paul Morphy rose to international fame as a chess master.
History
Eulalie Mandeville
Eulalie Mandeville was an entrepreneur of extraordinary business acumen who became one of New Orleans' wealthiest free women of color.
History
Indigenous Slavery
Indigenous people were enslaved alongside enslaved African people as domestic and agricultural laborers, guides, interpreters, hunters, sexual companions, and wives in colonial Louisiana.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
The Awakening
This entry provides an overview and analysis of Kate Chopin's short novel "The Awakening."
Literature
Ernest J. Gaines
Considered among the most important southern writers, Ernest J. Gaines was an award-winning fiction writer whose work often features the region where he grew up: rural and small-town south-central Louisiana.
Literature
Frances Parkinson Keyes
Francis Parkinson Keyes first visited New Orleans during Mardi Gras in 1940 when she was 55 years old. Enthralled with the city, Keyes rented a grand home in the French Quarter and set many novels there, including "Dinner at Antoine's," published in 1948. Keyes died in her home in New Orleans on July 3, 1970.
Literature
Clara Solomon
Clara Solomon is best known for her diary, which chronicles her experiences in New Orleans during the Civil War.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Dave Bartholomew
A longtime pillar of the New Orleans rhythm and blues community, Dave Bartholomew was a trumpeter, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, producer, bandleader, and astute businessman.
Music
Treme Brass Band
The Treme Brass Band is widely known for maintaining the traditional New Orleans brass band style.
Music
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier, self-proclaimed “King of the Bayou,” pioneered the modern sound of zydeco music starting in the 1950s.
Music
Albert Warner
Albert Warner is best remembered as a traditional jazz and brass band trombone player from New Orleans.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Caddo Nation
Caddo people began to inhabit the Red River valley approximately 2,500 years ago.
Peoples of Louisiana
Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana
The Chitimacha Tribe is the only federally recognized tribe in Louisiana to still occupy part of its ancestral territory.
Peoples of Louisiana
Taensa Tribe
One of Louisiana's pre-contact indigenous groups
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
King Cake
A round, braided cake consumed during the Carnival season across Louisiana, especially in New Orleans.
Religion & Spirituality
St. Mark's Community Center
St. Mark's Community Center, a settlement house run by Methodist deaconesses, opened its doors in New Orleans in 1909 and continues to operate today.
Religion & Spirituality
Father Paul Du Ru
A Jesuit priest was the first to establish Catholic missions among the Indigenous peoples of the Gulf South.
Religion & Spirituality
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.
Science & Technology
Science & Technology IndexScience & 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.
Science & Technology
Cholera in Louisiana
During the nineteenth century, cholera epidemics caused tens of thousands of deaths throughout the state of Louisiana.
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
Flint-Goodridge Hospital
Flint-Goodridge Hospital opened in 1896 to serve New Orleans’s Black community and provide medical training for Black nurses and physicians at a time when other hospitals denied services to Black people.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
Buddy Friedrichs
New Orleans sailing champion Buddy Friedrichs won a gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in the Dragon Class.
Sports & Recreation
Evangeline Baseball League
The Evangeline League was a minor league baseball circuit in southern and central Louisiana in the first half of the twentieth century.
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
Larry Gilbert
Larry Gilbert played major-league baseball, including in the 1914 World Series, before managing the New Orleans Pelicans.
