Archaeology
San Patrice Culture
This entry covers the San Patrice culture during the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic Periods, 8800–6000 BCE.
Archaeology
Archaeology Index
Archaeology
Poverty Point Culture
This entry covers prehistoric Poverty Point culture during the Late Archaic period, 2000–800 BCE.
Archaeology
Evans Culture
This entry covers the prehistoric Evans culture during the Middle Archaic Period, 6000–2000 BCE.
Archaeology
Mississippian Culture
The Mississippian culture spanned from roughly 1050 to 1700 CE
Architecture
Architecture IndexArchitecture
J. N. B. de Pouilly
J. N. B. de Pouilly was a successful architect in antebellum Louisiana.
Architecture
New Orleans City Park
One of the largest urban parks in the United States, New Orleans' City Park is home to many cultural and recreational attractions including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Botanical Garden, golf courses, tennis courts, City Bark dog park, Tad Gormley stadium, and several lagoons.
Architecture
East Louisiana State Hospital
The East Louisiana State Hospital in Jackson was the state's first major permanent facility to provide behavioral healthcare to patients.
Architecture
St. Emma Plantation
St. Emma Plantation was the site of a Civil War skirmish known as the Battle of Kock's Plantation.
Art
Art IndexArt
Boyd Cruise
Alvyk Boyd Cruise was a multitalented artist and historian in New Orleans during the mid-twentieth century.
Art
Xavier Gonzalez
Artist Xavier Gonzalez's Depression-era murals continue to ornament buildings across the state.
Art
Alexander Drysdale
Although Alexander Drysdale described himself as a portrait painter, he was known primarily for his landscapes depicting Louisiana's marshes and bayous.
Art
George Yerger and Leslie Addison
New Orleans-based George Havard Yerger and Leslie Addison are a husband and wife team of photographers.
Business & Industry
Business & Industry IndexBusiness & Industry
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.
Business & 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
Port Fourchon
Louisiana’s southernmost port on the Gulf of Mexico plays a critical role in the US energy industry.
Business & 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.
Disasters
Disasters IndexDisasters
Pan Am Flight 759 Crash
On July 9, 1982, wind shear caused Pan Am Flight 759 to crash into the New Orleans suburb of Kenner, killing 153 people.
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
Hurricane Rita
Making landfall in Cameron Parish on September 24, 2005, Hurricane Rita was the fourth-most-intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded.
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
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
Rougarou
The rougarou is one of the most well-known figures in South Louisiana folklore.
Folklife
Herbert Singleton
Self-taught artist Herbert Singleton created dramatic scenes of the rough New Orleans environment into which he was born, using found objects such as salvaged doors, driftwood, and discarded furniture.
Folklife
1873 Comus Parade
Mardi Gras of 1873 provided the occasion for a bold display of political commentary and costume artistrly by the Mystick Krewe of Comus.
Foodways
Foodways IndexFoodways
Pralines
The praline, a confection made of sugar and nuts, is a representative dish of the Franco- and Afro-Creole Atlantic diasporas.
Foodways
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
Stuffed Shrimp
Popularized in the late 1950s, stuffed shrimp is a signature dish of Shreveport.
Foodways
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.
Geography
Geography IndexGeography
Mandeville
Mandeville was founded in 1834, occupying part of what was formerly the sugar plantation of Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville in Louisiana.
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
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
Florida Parishes of Louisiana
A portion of Louisiana was once the western extremity of colonial Florida
Government, Politics & Law
Government, Politics & Law IndexGovernment, Politics & Law
Clay Shaw
Clay Shaw is the only person tried on charges related to an alleged conspiracy in the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
Government, Politics & Law
Bobby Jindal
Bobby Jindal, the fifty-fifth governor of Louisiana, served from 2008 to 2016.
Government, Politics & Law
Dave Treen Sr.
Dave Treen served as governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984, losing his bid for a second term to Edwin Edwards in 1983.
Government, Politics & Law
Charles A. O'Niell
Charles A. O'Niell served as the chief justice of the Louisiana Supreme Court from 1922 to 1949.
History
History IndexHistory
Jim Bowie
Although Jim Bowie is known for his role in the Battle of the Alamo, he was raised in Louisiana, where he engaged in land schemes and slave smuggling.
History
Laurel Valley Plantation
In the early twentieth century, Thibodaux's Laurel Valley Plantation was the largest sugar producer in the region and employed as many as 450 workers.
History
Dave Treen Sr.
Dave Treen served as governor of Louisiana from 1980 to 1984, losing his bid for a second term to Edwin Edwards in 1983.
History
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.
Literature
Literature IndexLiterature
New Orleans in Literature
New Orleans has been the subject of literature from the colonial period to the present day.
Literature
Federal Writers Project
The Federal Writers Project in Louisiana produced oral histories, local guidebooks, and other writings between 1935 and 1939.
Literature
John Kennedy Toole
New Orleans author John Kennedy Toole is known for his posthumously published novel "A Confederacy of Dunces," which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981.
Literature
A Streetcar Named Desire
In 1947 playwright Tennessee Williams premiered A Streetcar Named Desire, a critically acclaimed theatrical work that won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948.
Music
Music IndexMusic
Bill Evans
Bill Evans was a Louisiana-educated pianist and composer who made important contributions to the evolution of modern jazz.
Music
Captain John Handy
Captain John Handy was an early New Orleans traditional jazz, blues, and rhythm and blues alto saxophone player.
Music
Pete Fountain
Jazz clarinetist Pete Fountain was one of the New Orleans's most recognizable and commercially successful artists.
Music
Louisiana Hayride
The Louisiana Hayride was a radio barn dance broadcast from Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium between 1948 and 1960.
Peoples of Louisiana
Peoples of Louisiana IndexPeoples of Louisiana
Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana
The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana is the largest of four federally recognized tribal governments in Louisiana.
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.
Peoples 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
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe
The Tunica-Biloxi Tribe is one of only four American Indian groups in Louisiana recognized by the federal government.
Religion & Spirituality
Religion & Spirituality IndexReligion & Spirituality
Wesley Chapel
One of the first Black Protestant churches in Louisiana, Wesley Chapel played pivotal roles in social and political movements, from teaching freed Black women to read after the Civil War to engaging in the civil rights movement.
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 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
Protestantism in Louisiana
Several Protestant denominations are present in Louisiana with Southern Baptist and Methodist as the most dominant.
Science & Technology
Science & Technology IndexScience & 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
Coastal Restoration
For a state experiencing land loss at an alarming rate, coastal restoration has become an urgent need.
Science & 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
Cholera in Louisiana
During the nineteenth century, cholera epidemics caused tens of thousands of deaths throughout the state of Louisiana.
Sports & Recreation
Sports & Recreation IndexSports & Recreation
Buddy Friedrichs
New Orleans sailing champion Buddy Friedrichs won a gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics in the Dragon Class.
Sports & Recreation
Negro Leagues of Louisiana
The Negro Leagues were the network of African-American baseball teams and players from the 1880s to the integration of baseball in 1946–47.
Sports & Recreation
Bobby Brown
Tulane alumnus Bobby Brown played professional baseball with the New York Yankees and won four world championships.
Sports & Recreation
Pete Herman
Pete Herman, world champion bantamweight boxer, owned and operated a popular French Quarter bar until his death in 1973.
