Louisiana Leaders: Notable Women in History

Timeline of Louisiana Women's History
This document, compiled in October 1997 by Rachel Murphree, gives a brief synopsis of women's history in our state. It also provides a good starting point for additional research, and a contact for access to existing research files.

Louisiana Leaders: Notable Women in History Exhibit
In honor of Women's History Month 1996, the LSU Libraries sponsored this exhibit, curated by Rachel Cassel Murphree. The exhibit included pictures, portraits, and biographies of eighteen notable women in our state's history. This site gives the biographies of each woman and the accompanying list of bibliographic references.

Leaders:

Kate Chopin, 1850-1904, Author
Henriette DeLille, 1813-1862, Social worker, Educator, Co-Founder of Sisters of the Holy Family
Alice Dunbar-Nelson, 1875-1935, Author, Activist, Educator
Kate and Jean Gordon, 1861-1932, 1865-1932, Suffragists and Social Reformers
Angela Gregory, 1903-1990, Sculptor and Educator
Margaret Haughery, 1813-1883, Philanthropist, Businesswoman, and Social Worker
Clementine Hunter, 1885-1988, Artist
Sadie Irvine, 1887-1970, Craftswoman and Educator
Mahalia Jackson, 1911-1972, Gospel Singer, Recording Artist, Entrepreneur/Producer, Businesswoman
Frances Joseph-Gaudet, 1861-1934, Prison Reform Worker and Educator
Caroline Merrick, 1825-1908, Suffragist and Temperance Leader
Eliza Nicholson (Pearl Rivers), 1849-1896, Poet, Newspaper Owner and Editor
Camille Nickerson, 1888-1982, Collector, Arranger, Composer, Musician, and Educator
Elizabeth Lyle Saxon, 1832-1915, Suffragist, Temperance Leader, Social Reformer
Dr. Dolores Spikes, 1936- , First Woman in the United States to Head a University System
Madam C. J. Walker (Sarah Breedlove), 1867-1919, Businesswoman, Philanthropist and Inventor.
Sophie Bell Wright, 1886-1912, Educator and Social Reformer
Acknowledgements
The Faces of Science web site, created by Mitchell Brown of Princeton University, contains additional information and photographs.