Archaeology
Poverty Point Culture
Poverty Point in Louisiana, one of the most significant archaeological sites in in the world, dates to 3,500 years and represents the largest, most complex settlement of its kind in North America.
Archaeology
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
Tchefuncte Site
An archaeological site on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain helps researchers understand Tchefuncte culture from 600 to 200 BCE
Archaeology
Understanding Prehistoric Louisiana
By studying artifacts, archaeologists know that people were in Louisiana at least 13,000 years ago.
Archaeology
Mississippian Culture
The Mississippian culture spanned from roughly 1050 to 1700 CE
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
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.
Architecture
Glencoe Plantation
The architecture of Glencoe Plantation in Louisiana is unusually elaborate and resembles an illustration from a child's fairy-tale book.
Architecture
Bousillage
Bousillage, a mixture of clay and straw or Spanish moss used for insulation, is a distinguishing feature of Louisiana's architectural past.
Architecture
Alice Plantation
In 1961, the upper floor of this house was floated by barge along Bayou Teche from its original location in St. Mary Parish, which was being developed as a subdivision.
Art
Art IndexArt
Raymond Sedatol
A native of the Atchafalaya Basin, master boat builder Raymond Sedatol constructed traditional watercraft such as pirogues and rowing skiffs in the manner of his Cajun ancestors.
Art
Richard Clague Jr.
Widely credited as the founder of the landscape painting tradition in Louisiana, French-born painter Richard Clague received most of his formal artistic training in Europe.
Art
William Henry Baker
William Henry Baker was a itinerant Grand Manner portrait painter active in the New Orleans area during the nineteenth century.
Art
Michael P. Smith
The subjects of New Orleans photographer Michael P. Smith's works include the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, individual musicians, brass bands, jazz funerals, social aid and pleasure club parades, and spiritual churches.
Business and Industry
Business and Industry IndexBusiness 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
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
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 and Industry
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
One of the worst environmental disasters in US history
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
Steamboat Princess Disaster
On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew.
Disasters
Grand 16 Theater Shooting
The Grand 16 Theater Shooting was a 2015 mass shooting in Lafayette that left three dead and injured nine, catapulting the city into a national discussion about gun control.
Disasters
Hurricane Rita
Making landfall in Cameron Parish in Louisiana on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita was the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.
Disasters
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.
Folklife
Folklife IndexFolklife
Darryl Reeves
Darryl Reeves is a master blacksmith who hand-forges decorative and functional ironwork for many of New Orleans' historic homes and public buildings.
Folklife
Crawfish Boils
Crawfish boils are a springtime ritual in Louisiana.
Folklife
Los Adaes
The history of the fort, mission, and settlement of Los Adaes reflects both intercolonial rivalry and cooperation among the Spanish, French, and Native Americans who lived along the border of New Spain and French Louisiana.
Folklife
Congo Square
Congo Square, now Armstrong Park in New Orleans's Treme neighborhood, served as a gathering ground for Africans in the early years of the city.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Po-Boy Sandwich
The so-called poor boy (po-boy) sandwich originated from the Martin Brothers' French Market Restaurant and Coffee Stand in New Orleans during the 1929 streetcar strike.
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
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."
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Bourbon Street
The origins of the notorious adult playground
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
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.
Government & Politics
Government & Politics IndexGovernment & Politics
Jacques Dupré
Jacques Dupré;, a Whig, served as acting governor of Louisiana from January 14, 1830, to January 31, 1831.
Government & Politics
Edwin Edwards
Democratic politician Edwin Washington Edwards cast a long shadow over the state's political history.
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
Antoine de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac
Antoine de La Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac served as the governor of Louisiana from 1713 to 1716.
History
History IndexHistory
Pokey McIlhenny
Margeret "Pokey" McIlhenny was a New Orleans civic leader whose interests were politics, education, and public television.
History
Kate and Jean Gordon
Sisters Jean and Kate Gordon stand out as among the most influential women of the progressive era in New Orleans.
History
Jacques Philippe Villeré
Jacques Villeré was the first native-born governor of Louisiana, serving from 1816 until 1820.
History
Micaela Almonester, Baroness Pontalba
Micaela Leonarda Almonester de Pontalba was the sponsor of landmark architectural complexes in her native Louisiana, as well as in France, her home for sixty-seven years.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
Creoles in Literature
Representations of Louisiana’s Creole population are as varied and complex as the definition of the term itself.
Literature
James Lee Burke
James Lee Burke is the author of detective fiction set in Louisiana.
Literature
Federal Writers Project
The Federal Writers Project in Louisiana produced oral histories, local guidebooks, and other writings between 1935 and 1939.
Literature
Dorothy Dix
Dorothy Dix, the pseudonym of Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer, was a writer and immensely popular advice columnist in the early twentieth century.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Polo Barnes
New Orleans jazz clarinetist Paul “Polo” Barnes performed frequently at Preservation Hall in the 1960s.
Music
Lee Dorsey
Vocalist Lee Dorsey recorded some of the biggest rhythm and blues hits of the 1960s.
Music
William Christopher “W. C.” O’Hare
Known as the “Father of Ragtime in Shreveport,” William Christopher “W. C.” O’Hare was a white composer, orchestra leader, and music teacher who served as an important link between Black and white musical cultures.
Music
Traditional New Orleans Jazz
Traditional New Orleans jazz is a musical genre with distinctive stylistic features that are tied to festival traditions within a discrete, regional culture.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Vietnamese in Louisiana
Vietnamese Americans are one of the newest major ethnic groups in Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana
Cajuns
Cajuns are the descendants of Acadian exiles from 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
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is the largest of four federally recognized tribal governments in Louisiana.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & 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
Marie Tranchepain
Marie Tranchepain was the first Mother Superior of New Orleans’s Ursulines and an early female diarist.
Religion & 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
White Gospel Music
White gospel music, also known as Southern gospel, represents a widespread aspect of US culture.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
John Franks
John Franks dominated the sport of horse racing for over twenty years and became one of the leading stable owners and breeders in the country.
Sports & Recreation
Eddie Delahoussaye
Horse racing jockey Eddie Delahoussaye won five Triple Crown races and is a member of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame.
Sports & Recreation
Rusty Staub
Major League Baseball player Rusty Staub was raised in New Orleans and attended Jesuit High School before being becoming one of the New York Mets; most popular players and a six-time All-Star.
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.
