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
Marie Thérèse Coincoin
Coincoin, a formerly enslaved woman freed in colonial Natchitoches, is an icon of American slavery and Louisiana’s Creole culture.
Archaeology
Historical Archaeology in Louisiana
Archaeologists at sites across Louisiana help fill in the written record through physical excavations of the past.
Archaeology
Coles Creek Culture
Once covering most of Louisiana, the Coles Creek culture is known for its distinctive ceremonial mound sites.
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
St. Emma Plantation
St. Emma Plantation was the site of a Civil War skirmish known as the Battle of Kock's Plantation.
Architecture
Wiener Brothers
Brothers Sam and William Wiener were among the first American-born architects to introduce European Modernism to the United States.
Architecture
Jean Noel Destrehan
As one of the most prominent Mississippi River plantation owners of colonial Louisiana, Jean Noel Destrehan built a prosperous farming operation around the stately River Road manor that still bears his family name.
Architecture
Destrehan Plantation
Established in 1787, Destrehan Plantation is the oldest documented plantation in the lower Mississippi Valley.
Art
Art IndexArt
Earl Barthé
Earl Barthé was a fifth-generation architectural artisan who created architectural decorative plaster works.
Art
Elemore Morgan Jr.
Elemore Morgan, Jr. was an internationally recognized landscape painter and longtime advocate of the visual and performing arts in Louisiana.
Art
George Dunbar
George Dunbar has been a major figure in New Orleans contemporary art for more than five decades.
Art
Federal Art and Writers Projects
The Federal Art Project and Federal Writers Project helped employ out-of-work artists and writers during the Great Depression.
Business & Industry
Business & Industry IndexBusiness & Industry
L’Union
The South’s first Black newspaper, L’Union was an abolitionist journal that promoted full citizenship rights for men of African descent.
Business & Industry
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
The 2010 BP spill was one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.
Business & Industry
Brotherhood of Timber Workers
An integrated labor union violently suppressed by lumber barons.
Business & Industry
Port of Lake Charles
The Port of Lake Charles opened in 1926 and remains one of the country’s most active oil, gas, and petrochemical transportation hubs.
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
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.
Disasters
Mechanics’ Institute Massacre of 1866
Following the Civil War, an attempt to amend the state’s constitution to grant Black men the vote provoked a deadly reaction from white supremacists, sparking national outrage and significant reforms.
Disasters
Steamboat Princess Disaster
On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew.
Disasters
Hurricane Audrey
Hurricane Audrey, the first named storm of the 1957 season, took residents by surprise with an earlier-than-expected landfall and claimed more than four hundred lives.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
St. Joseph Altars
Catholic Louisianans of Sicilian descent erect altars laden with fresh produce, baked goods, and other foods to honor Saint Joseph.
Folklife
Carnival Throws
The culture and history of Mardi Gras throws, especially ubiquitous plastic beads, reflect relationships Louisianans have with each other and the spaces they inhabit.
Folklife
Gay Carnival
Since the mid-twentieth century, LGBTQ+ residents of Louisiana have contributed unique traditions to Mardi Gras celebrations.
Folklife
Creole Folktales
Many Louisiana Creole folktales represent a convergence of African and European culture.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Muffuletta Sandwich
The muffuletta–a mammoth sandwich of round sesame bread layered with Genoa salami, ham, mortadella, cheese, and olive salad–is a signature dish of New Orleans.
Foodways
Zwolle Tamales
Zwolle tamales, a popular food from northwest Louisiana’s Sabine Parish, trace their origin to the region’s Indigenous cultures.
Foodways
Red Beans and Rice
Traditionally served on Mondays in New Orleans, red beans and rice is an economical dish that has become a staple throughout Louisiana and the Gulf Coast.
Foodways
Crawfish Boils
Crawfish boils are a springtime ritual in Louisiana.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
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
Bayou Teche
Before railroads and highways, Bayou Teche served as an important transportation route deep into the fertile interior of south-central Louisiana.
Geography
Natchitoches Settlement
The Natchitoches settlement, founded in 1714, is the oldest in the Louisiana Territory.
Geography
Neutral Strip
The Neutral Strip existed outside the governance of either the United States or Spain until 1821.
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
Pierre Sidrac Dugué de Boisbriand
Canadian explorer Pierre Sidrac Dugué de Boisbriand, one of the founding fathers of colonial Louisiana, served as acting governor of Louisiana between February 1725 and March 1727.
Government, Politics & Law
Compromise of 1877
The Compromise of 1877 refers to an unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 US presidential election and ended congressional Reconstruction.
Government, Politics & Law
John McEnery
In 1872 John McEnery was elected governor in one of the most controversial and bizarre elections in Louisiana history.
Government, Politics & Law
Bill Dodd
Lieutenant governor Bill Dodd was a pivotal figure in the "Tidelands Dispute," the war of wills between state and federal authorities over offshore drilling revenue.
History
History IndexHistory
Jean Jacques Blaise d'Abbadie
Jean Jacques Blaise D'Abbadie, an experienced naval officer and administrator, was one of three officials that Louis XV sent to govern French Colonial Louisiana in 1763.
History
Georgia Johnson
Georgia Johnson was a businesswoman and civil rights activist in Alexandria from the 1920s to the 1960s.
History
John McEnery
In 1872 John McEnery was elected governor in one of the most controversial and bizarre elections in Louisiana history.
History
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.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
Detective Fiction
For all the rich and varied literature that has come out of Louisiana, mystery and detective fiction has, for the most part, been a recent addition to the state's literary canon.
Literature
Wilmer Mills
Wilmer Mills was a poet deeply rooted in the rural Protestant culture of the Plains, an area located between St. Francisville and Baton Rouge.
Literature
Louis Charles Roudanez
Founder of L’Union, the South’s first Black-owned newspaper, as well as the New Orleans Tribune, America’s first Black daily, Louis Charles Roudanez was a staunch abolitionist and advocate for the liberation of all Black people.
Literature
Rachel O'Connor
A pioneer planter in what is now West Feliciana Parish, Rachel O'Connor wrote more than one hundred letters describing antebellum plantation life in southern Louisiana.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Louisiana Record Labels
With its diverse musical heritage, Louisiana has been home to many important record labels.
Music
Gatemouth Brown
Though described as a blues guitarist, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown embraced a variety of music genres and musical instruments, including the violin, viola, mandolin, mandola, harmonica, and drums.
Music
Hackberry Ramblers
From 1933 to 2005, the Hackberry Ramblers played a blend of Cajun music, western swing, Gulf Coast swamp-pop, early rock and roll, and classic country.
Music
Allen Toussaint
Based in New Orleans, Allen Toussaint composed, produced, arranged, and played piano on scores of classic R&B hits from the late 1950s through the 1970s, in addition to recording several solo albums.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Quapaw Tribe
The Quapaw Indians, whose four villages were located along the Arkansas River, were military allies and trade partners of colonial Louisianans.
Peoples 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
Taensa Tribe
One of Louisiana's pre-contact indigenous groups
Peoples 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
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & Spirituality
Winnsboro Easter Rock
Held on the Saturday before Easter Sunday, this women-led vigil includes counterclockwise percussive foot movement and call-and-response singing.
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
St. Joseph Altars
Catholic Louisianans of Sicilian descent erect altars laden with fresh produce, baked goods, and other foods to honor Saint Joseph.
Religion & Spirituality
Marie Tranchepain
Marie Tranchepain was the first Mother Superior of New Orleans’s Ursulines and an early female diarist.
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
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.
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
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.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
Audrey Patterson-Tyler
Tyler was the first African American woman to win an Olympic medal.
Sports & Recreation
Emmett Toppino
Martin Emmett Toppino was a champion sprinter from New Orleans who won a gold medal at the 1932 Olympics as a member of the US 400-meter relay team.
Sports & Recreation
Eddie Morgan
A star athlete at Tulane University, Eddie Morgan played for the New Orleans Pelicans in 1927 before joining the Cleveland Indians.
Sports & Recreation
Tony Canzoneri
Louisiana' Tony Canzoneri secured his place among the boxing elite when he became the second fighter in history to win world championships in three different weight classes.
