Archaeology
Poverty Point Culture
This entry covers prehistoric Poverty Point culture during the Late Archaic period, 2000–800 BCE.
Archaeology
Archaeology Index
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
Native American Mounds
Louisiana boasts some of the most significant Native American earthen monuments in North America and ranks second only to Mississippi in the number of mound sites.
Archaeology
Evans Culture
This entry covers the prehistoric Evans culture during the Middle Archaic Period, 6000–2000 BCE.
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
Benjamin Latrobe
American architect Benjamin Latrobe designed plans for the US Capitol and other buildings. He came to New Orleans to develop waterworks and wrote about the city in his journal.
Architecture
Louisiana State University Rural Life Museum
The LSU Rural Life Museum is an outdoor complex of southern rural vernacular buildings located in Baton Rouge.
Architecture
Bocage Plantation
Although Bocage's early history is hazy, local tradition has maintained that the house was built in 1801 by Emanuel Marius Pons Bringier as a wedding gift for his fourteen-year-old daughter, Françoise.
Architecture
Shotgun House
The shotgun house, prevalent in New Orleans architecture, is typically a long, narrow house facing the street, with a roof ridge that runs perpendicular to the front entrance.
Art
Art IndexArt
Angela Gregory
Angela Gregory is widely referred to as the doyenne of Louisiana sculpture.
Art
Ambrose Duval
French artist Ambrose Duval achieved success as a miniature portrait painter in New Orleans in the early nineteenth century.
Art
Marshall Joseph Smith Jr.
Marshall Joseph Smith, Jr., a landscape and genre painter, is also credited as the founder the carnival organization Proteus, for which he designed parades and tableaux.
Art
Ida Kohlmeyer
Ida Kohlmeyer, a New Orleans painter, sculptor, printmaker, and teacher, is nationally recognized as one of the most influential contemporary artists in the South.
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
Plantation Slavery in Antebellum Louisiana
Enslaved people endured brutal conditions on sugarcane and cotton plantations during the antebellum period.
Business & Industry
Julien de Lalande Poydras
Julien de Lalande Poydras was a Point Coupée Parish plantation owner, banker, political leader, and philanthropist who was a pivotal figure in the early history of Louisiana.
Business & Industry
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
Disasters IndexDisasters
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.
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
Hurricane Betsy
In September 1965, Hurricane Betsy, one of the deadliest and costliest storms in US history, made landfall near New Orleans.
Disasters
Coastal Land Loss
The gradual loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands is a slow-moving disaster largely set in motion by a series of human interventions in natural processes.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
Canray Fontenot
The music of Creole fiddler Canray Fontenot cuts across a variety of musical genres: Cajun, zydeco, and blues-waltzes, a unique style combining elements of blues and jazz.
Folklife
Bras Coupé
A self-emancipated maroon who lived in the swamps surrounding New Orleans during the 1830s, Bras Coupé has developed a powerful folkloric following.
Folklife
Gay Carnival
Since the mid-twentieth century, LGBTQ+ residents of Louisiana have contributed unique traditions to Mardi Gras celebrations.
Folklife
John Lomax
John Avery Lomax was a folklorist and musicologist who, with his son Alan Lomax, made the first recording of the Louisiana blues guitarist Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Rayne, Frog Capital
Rayne, a city in Acadia Parish, is nicknamed the “Frog Capital of the World” for its history as a former titan in the bullfrog exporting industry.
Foodways
Elmer Candy Company
Elmer Candy Company, the oldest family-owned chocolate company in the United States, is known for its trio of egg-shaped chocolate confections as well as originating the line of CheeWees savory snacks.
Foodways
Stuffed Shrimp
Popularized in the late 1950s, stuffed shrimp is a signature dish of Shreveport.
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.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Slidell
Surveyed and platted in 1883 for the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad, Slidell was named for John Slidell, Confederate ambassador to France and U.S. congressman.
Geography
Natchitoches Settlement
The Natchitoches settlement, founded in 1714, is the oldest in the Louisiana Territory.
Geography
Coastal Master Plan
In response to decades of warnings about land loss, Louisiana released its first Coastal Master Plan in 2007.
Geography
Red River Raft
The Great Raft was a thousand-year-old logjam in the Red River that prevented transportation downriver to New Orleans.
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
Luther Hall
Before becoming governor of Louisiana, a position he held from 1912 until 1916, Luther Hall served as a state senator, a district judge, and a state appellate court judge.
Government, Politics & Law
Bourbon Louisiana
The policies and ambitions of Bourbon Democrats dominated Louisiana's political and social life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Government, Politics & Law
Coastal Restoration
For a state experiencing land loss at an alarming rate, coastal restoration has become an urgent need.
Government, Politics & Law
John B. Fournet
John B. Fournet served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1949 to 1970.
History
History IndexHistory
Teddy Roosevelt's Bear Hunt
President Teddy Roosevelt's hunt for black bear in the northeastern Louisiana canebrakes in October 1907 was widely covered by the national media.
History
Sebastian Calvo de la Puerta Y O'Farrill, marqués de Casa Calvo
After the death of Governor Manuel Gayoso de Lemos in July 1799, Casa Calvo was sent to Louisiana to serve as interim governor of the Spanish colony.
History
Hurricane Betsy
In September 1965, Hurricane Betsy, one of the deadliest and costliest storms in US history, made landfall near New Orleans.
History
Pokey McIlhenny
Margeret "Pokey" McIlhenny was a New Orleans civic leader whose interests were politics, education, and public television.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
Everette Maddox
Everette Maddox was a poet known for his powers of wit and observation which he used to great effect in his works.
Literature
Lillian Hellman
New Orleans native Lillian Hellman was the author of several successful plays, as well as her popular memoirs.
Literature
Truman Capote
New Orleans-born author Truman Capote wrote the first nonfiction novel, "In Cold Blood" in 1966.
Literature
Cajuns in Literature
Acadians, Cajuns, and their history became part of American literature, often represented through romantic myth.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Doug Kershaw
Doug Kershaw is a Cajun fiddler, singer, and songwriter who cemented his place in American popular music at the height of the 1960s counter-culture movement with two self-penned hits, "Louisiana Man" and "Diggy Diggy Lo."
Music
"When the Saints Go Marching In"
"When the Saints Go Marching In" has been adopted as the anthem of the city of New Orleans and is the fight song of its football team, The Saints, named in its honor.
Music
René Hall
René Hall was an arranger and studio musician who made invaluable contributions to scores of hit recordings from the 1950s through the 1970s.
Music
Marie Théard
Marie Théard (Moses) achieved distinction as a pianist, piano teacher, collector, arranger, and translator of French and French Creole Patois songs of Louisiana.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Free People of Color
Free people of color constituted a diverse segment of Louisiana’s population and included people that were born free or enslaved, were of African or mixed racial ancestry, and were French- or English-speaking
Peoples of Louisiana
Filipinos
Louisiana is home to the earliest Filipino American community in the United States.
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
Henriette Delille
Henriette Delille was a free Afro-Creole woman who founded sodalities, or religious sororities, for women of African descent that dedicated themselves to the care of the poor, the enslaved, and free people of color.
Religion & Spirituality
Ascension of Our Lord Catholic Church Cemetery
This Catholic cemetery in Donaldsonville was laid out in a grid plan shortly after the church parish was founded in 1772.
Religion & 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
St. Louis Cemeteries No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3
Established in 1789, St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is the oldest cemetery in the city of New Orleans.
Science & Technology
Science & Technology IndexScience & 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
Coastal Land Loss
The gradual loss of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands is a slow-moving disaster largely set in motion by a series of human interventions in natural processes.
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.
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.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & 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
George Strickland
New Orleanian George Strickland spent twenty-one years as a major league baseball player.
Sports & Recreation
Joe Brown
Boxer Joe Brown made his professional debut at age seventeen at the Victory Arena in New Orleans.
Sports & Recreation
Robby Albarado
Louisiana jockey Robby Albarado is one of the most successful riders in US horse racing history.
