Archaeology
Archaeology of the New Orleans Area
In New Orleans archaeological explorations span 2,500 years of history
Encyclopedia
Entry IndexArchaeology
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
Mississippian Culture
The Mississippian culture spanned from roughly 1050 to 1700 CE
Archaeology
Pre-Clovis and Clovis Cultures
This entry covers the Pre-Clovis and Clovis cultures during the Early Paleoindian Period, 11500–9500 BCE, and Middle Paleoindian Period, 9500 BCE–8800 BCE
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
Richard Koch
Louisiana architect and preservationist Richard Koch worked with the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) in the state during the Great Depression.
Architecture
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.
Architecture
Zemurray Lodge and Gardens
This large, rambling house began as a one-and-half-story frame structure built as a retreat by lawyer, planter, and entrepreneur Alfred Hennen in 1829.
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.
Art
Art IndexArt
Joshua Mann Pailet
Joshua Mann Pailet is recognized as both an art photographer and the owner/director of A Gallery of Fine Photography in New Orleans.
Art
Philip Gould
Lafayette-based photographer Philip Gould is a prolific and award-winning documentarian of Louisiana's landscapes and culture.
Art
Walter Inglis Anderson
Walter Inglis Anderson, born in New Orleans, expressed his unique artistic vision in murals, watercolors, oils, sketches, sculpture, rugs, wallpaper, and furniture, among other art forms.
Art
Juanita Gonzales
New Orleans artist Juanita Gonzales produced clay sculpture, tile, and pottery that was far ahead of its time in terms of both technique and glazing.
Business and Industry
Business and Industry IndexBusiness and Industry
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
One of the worst environmental disasters in US history
Business and 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 and Industry
The Shreve Town Company
The Shreve Town Company was a for-profit business venture that led to the establishment of what is today known as Shreveport, the largest city in northwest Louisiana.
Business and Industry
Standard Oil
In the early 1900s, the Standard Oil Company of Louisiana built one of the largest refineries in the world in Baton Rouge.
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
George Prince Ferry Disaster
The 1976 George Prince ferry disaster between Destrehan and Luling was the deadliest ferry disaster in US history and a touchstone for a new set of safety protocols for ferry travel.
Disasters
The Up Stairs Lounge Fire
The act of arson at the Up Stairs Lounge, a gay bar in the French Quarter, was the deadliest fire on record in New Orleans history and the largest mass killing of queer citizens in twentieth-century America.
Disasters
Westwego Continental Grain Elevator Explosion
The Westwego explosion ranks among the worst industrial disasters in modern Louisiana history and the deadliest disaster to date in the nation’s grain industry.
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."
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
Chitimacha Baskets
Deeply rooted in the history, spirituality, and daily activities of the Chitimacha people, basketry remains a visible expression of the Chitimacha Indian tribe’s culture and tradition.
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.
Folklife
Blessings of the Fleet
At Boat Blessings, a Catholic priest blesses a community’s shrimp boats before the start of shrimp season
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Crawfish Boils
Crawfish boils are a springtime ritual in Louisiana.
Foodways
Avery Island
Located in Iberia Parish, Avery Island, the largest of five salt domes along the Louisiana coast, is the home of the McIlhenny Company, maker of Tabasco brand products for more than 140 years.
Foodways
Lucky Dogs
The weiner-shaped Lucky Dog hot dog pushcarts in New Orleans's French Quarter were the inspiration for the fictional Paradise Vendors in John Kennedy Toole's novel "A Confederacy of Dunces."
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.
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
Mandeville
Mandeville was founded in 1834, occupying part of what was formerly the sugar plantation of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville in Louisiana.
Geography
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.
Government & Politics
Government & Politics IndexGovernment & Politics
Longism
"Longism" refers to both the political machine and the radical populist doctrine established by Huey Long in Louisiana in 1928.
Government & Politics
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.
Government & Politics
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.
Government & Politics
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is the largest of three federally recognized Coushatta tribal governments.
History
History IndexHistory
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.
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
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.
History
Bourbon Louisiana
The policies and ambitions of Bourbon Democrats dominated Louisiana's political and social life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
Elmore Leonard Jr.
Louisiana author Elmore Leonard, Jr. writes crime fiction and westerns.
Literature
Grace King
New Orleans novelist and historian Grace King made the city and state of her birth an abiding theme in her work.
Literature
Cammie Garrett Henry
Cammie Henry played a central role in Louisiana's artistic and literary communities, as both a patron of the arts and preservationist.
Literature
Eliza Ripley
Eliza Ripley recounts life in antebellum Louisiana, focusing on the habits and customs of typical upper-class New Orleans households.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Rap, Hip-Hop, and Bounce Music
Rap, hip-hop, and bounce are musical genres that developed in New Orleans beginning in the late 1980s.
Music
Wilbert Tillman
Wilbert Tillman was a traditional jazz and brass band multi-instrumentalist from New Orleans who played with the Eureka, Young Tuxedo, and Tulane brass bands.
Music
Joe Robichaux
Traditional jazz and early rhythm and blues pianist Joe Robichaux may be best remembered as bandleader of the New Orleans Rhythm Boys.
Music
Lizzie Miles
Lizzie Miles was a vocalist adept at both blues and jazz stylings whose career spanned most of the modern jazz age.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & 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
Archbishop Joseph Rummel
Archbishop Joseph Rummel was among the first religious leaders in Louisiana to proclaim the immorality of racism and ordered the desegregation of Catholic schools in New Orleans.
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
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.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
Pete Herman
Pete Herman, world champion bantamweight boxer, owned and operated a popular French Quarter bar until his death in 1973.
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
Kent DesOrmeaux
In 1989, jockey Kent Desormeaux's 598 first place finishes set the record for most wins in a single season.
