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
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
San Patrice Culture
This entry covers the San Patrice culture during the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Periods, 8800–6000 BCE.
Archaeology
Caddo Culture
This entry covers prehistoric Caddo culture during the Late Woodland and Mississippi Periods, 900–1700 CE.
Archaeology
Evans Culture
This entry covers the prehistoric Evans culture during the Middle Archaic Period, 6000–2000 BCE.
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
Charles Colbert
Architect Charles Colbert's contributions to the shaping of mid-Twentieth Century architecture in southern Louisiana are profound.
Architecture
Old Governor's Mansion
Huey P. Long ordered the construction of the Old Governor's Mansion in 1929, replacing the first Governor's Mansion which was built in 1857.
Architecture
Houmas House Plantation
Houmas House Plantation in Darrow is an excellent example of the peripteral type of Greek Revival architecture in which the main structure is surrounded by grand columns, each with an uninterrupted span from ground level to the roofline.
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
Richmond Barthe
Richmond Barthé's, raised in New Orleans, was a significant figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Much of Barthé's most celebrated sculptures are representations of the nude black male body.
Art
Jean Joseph Vaudechamp
In the 1830s, French painter Jean Joseph Vaudechamp regularly visited New Orleans during the winter months to paint portraits of the city's elite French Creoles.
Art
Jacqueline Bishop
New Orleans painter Jacqueline Bishop has created a body of work that has taken her from Louisiana swamplands to Latin American rainforests.
Art
Gene Koss
Koss founded Tulane University's glass studio in 1977, thus ushering the art-glass movement into New Orleans.
Business & Industry
Business & Industry IndexBusiness & Industry
Coastal Restoration
For a state experiencing land loss at an alarming rate, coastal restoration has become an urgent need.
Business & Industry
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.
Business & Industry
Freeman & Harris Café
Freeman & Harris Café was a Black-owned restaurant that served as a pillar of Black social, cultural, and political life in Shreveport.
Business & Industry
First Louisiana Oil Well
Exploitable petroleum deposits were found in Louisiana in 1901, changing the state's economy and landscape forever.
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
Hurricane Andrew
After wreaking havoc on Florida, Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Louisiana and caused widespread devastation.
Disasters
New Orleans Flood of 1849
The flood of 1849 was the worst in New Orleans history until Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.
Disasters
Hurricane Betsy
In September 1965, Hurricane Betsy, one of the deadliest and costliest storms in US history, made landfall near New Orleans.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
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
Georgie and Allen Manuel
Allen and Georgie Manuel were a husband-wife team who made traditional costumes of the Cajun courir du Mardi Gras, the celebration of Carnival season in rural South Louisiana.
Folklife
Cajun Dance Halls
Cajun dance halls–salles de danse– are live music venues where dancing, courtship, and community building transpire.
Folklife
Campeche Chair
The Campeche chair, a leather or caned sling seat supported by a non-folding cross-frame, was in widespread use in the United States and New Spain in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Stuffed Shrimp
Popularized in the late 1950s, stuffed shrimp is a signature dish of Shreveport.
Foodways
Tabasco Sauce
Tabasco is a popular brand of pepper sauce products and related items manufactured by McIlhenny Company, a privately held, family-owned business headquartered on Avery Island, Louisiana.
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
Barq's Sodas
Brothers Edward and Gaston Barq began bottling carbonated water and soft drinks in New Orleans in 1890.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Red River Raft
The Great Raft was a thousand-year-old logjam in the Red River that prevented transportation downriver to New Orleans.
Geography
Neutral Strip
The Neutral Strip existed outside the governance of either the United States or Spain until 1821.
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.
Geography
Bayou Teche
Before railroads and highways, Bayou Teche served as an important transportation route deep into the fertile interior of south-central Louisiana.
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
Reconstruction
The post-Civil War period in US history is known as the Reconstruction era, when the former Confederacy was brought back into the Union.
Government, Politics & Law
Governors of Louisiana
This is a complete list of the governors of Louisiana, their terms, and links to biographical entries.
Government, Politics & Law
Oliver O. Provosty
Oliver O. Provosty served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court in 1922.
Government, Politics & Law
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.
History
History IndexHistory
Robert Charles Riots
After an altercation between Robert Charles, a Black man, and the police, Black New Orleanians faced indiscriminate and lethal violence at the hands of police and a white mob.
History
Brotherhood of Timber Workers
An integrated labor union violently suppressed by lumber barons.
History
Tarzan of the Apes
"Tarzan of the Apes" was filmed in 1917 in Morgan City, making it the first feature-length motion picture shot on location in Louisiana.
History
Black Panther Party
The Black Panther Party briefly flourished in New Orleans as it brought a message of hope and upliftment to impoverished residents in the Ninth Ward.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
Solomon Northup
Solomon Northup, a free Black New Yorker, was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841, spending twelve years enslaved on Louisiana plantations before regaining his freedom.
Literature
Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin, one of Louisiana's best known authors, wrote fiction about late nineteenth-century Cajun life.
Literature
Sarah Morgan Dawson
Sarah Morgan Dawson kept a dairy of her experiences during the Civil War in Louisiana.
Literature
Southwestern Humor
Southwestern humor is a literary genre that flourished in the southeastern United States between 1830 and 1865.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Jim Robinson
New Orleans jazz musician Jim Robinson's consistency and appealing sound made him one of the most prominent trombonists of his time.
Music
Amédé Ardoin
One of southern Louisiana's first great recording artists was Creole accordionist and singer Amédé Ardoin.
Music
Carol Fran
Singer and pianist Carol Fran was a blues, swamp pop, R&B, and jazz musician whose work reflects the influence of southwest Louisiana's culture.
Music
Al Hirt
Al Hirt was a New Orleans trumpeter and bandleader was one of the most successful instrumental recording artists in the 1960s.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Irish in New Orleans
The influence of Irish immigrants in New Orleans can still be seen in the Irish Channel neighborhood, St. Patrick's Day celebrations and churches such as St. Alphonsus.
Peoples of Louisiana
Ishak Indigenous People
The Ishak are an Indigenous people who have lived in southwest Louisiana and southeastern Texas since precolonial times.
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.
Peoples of Louisiana
Climate Migration
Climate migration occurs when people move away from home due to extreme environmental conditions worsened or caused by climate change, such as hurricanes, coastal erosion, sea level rise, flooding, and fires.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & 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
Jimmy Swaggart
Called the "King of Honky Tonk Heaven" by Newsweek in 1982, Ferriday's Jimmy Swaggart was America's most popular televangelist in the 1980s.
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. 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
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
Freeman and Custis Red River Expedition
An American effort to explore the Louisiana Purchase territory was hindered by a log jam on the Red River and two hundred Spanish troops.
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
Bobby Brown
Tulane alumnus Bobby Brown played professional baseball with the New York Yankees and won four world championships.
Sports & Recreation
Jimmy Perrin
Jimmy Perrin made his professional boxing debut in 1933 against Tony Feraci at the Coliseum Arena in New Orleans.
Sports & Recreation
New Orleans Saints
When it was aired, the New Orleans Saints Super Bowl victory in 2010 was the most-watched television broadcast in history, drawing more than 153 million viewers.
Sports & Recreation
New Orleans Zephyrs and Baby Cakes
The New Orleans Baby Cakes, formerly the New Orleans Zephyrs, were a Minor League Baseball team that played in the New Orleans area from 1993 to 2019.
