KnowLA is a comprehensive, dynamic online reference guide to the history and culture of Louisiana. The encyclopedia is accessible to anyone with a web-enabled device, free of charge.
French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, is perhaps best known for giving the region and ultimately the state its name: Louisiana. Continue »
La Salle, Renee-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de - Expeditions
Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle led two expeditions in search of the Mississippi River's outlet to the Gulf of Mexico for France under King Louis XIV. Continue »
LaClotte, Jean Hyacyinthe
Jean-Hyacinthe LaClotte is best remembered for his iconic oil-on-canvas painting depicting the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. Continue »
Lafayette in Louisiana
The visit of General Lafayette to the United States in 1824–25 was the occasion for a yearlong celebration unmatched in American history. Continue »
Lafon, Barthélémy
Barthélémy Lafon enjoyed a long and diverse career in Louisiana as an architect, builder, engineer, surveyor, cartographer, town planner, planter, land speculator, publisher, and pirate. Continue »
Lake, Miranda
New Orleans artist Miranda Lake works in the medium of encaustic, an ancient practice that blends beeswax with pigment. Continue »
Lalaurie, Delphine Macarty
Delphine Macarty Lalaurie was a woman of Antebellum New Orleans who was notorious for the cruel treatment of her slaves. Continue »
Landry, Pierre Joseph
Pierre Joseph Landry was a self-taught woodcarver whose works evolved from simple figures to elaborate allegorical pieces. Continue »
Latimer, Clay
Attorney and feminist activist Clayton, or Clay, Latimer was instrumental in many of the reforms achieved by the modern women’s rights movement in Louisiana Continue »
Latrobe, Benjamin
American architect Benjamin Latrobe designed plans for the US Capitol and other buildings. He came to New Orleans to develop waterworks and wrote about the city in his journal. Continue »
Laughlin, Clarence John
Clarence John Laughlin was one of New Orleans’s most renowned twentieth-century photographers and, at the same time, among the least understood. Continue »
Laveau, Marie
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. Continue »
Lawrence, John
As a photographer and curator, John Lawrence has played a major role in the New Orleans photographic community for more than thirty years. Continue »
Le Page du Pratz, Antoine Simon
An engineer by training, Antoine Simon Le Page du Pratz published a richly illustrated, three-volume, 1,300 page observation of life in early Louisiana, “Historie de La Louisiane.” Continue »
Lead Belly
Huddie 'Lead Belly' Ledbetter is one of the most important grassroots musicians of the twentieth century. Continue »
Leche, Richard W.
In 1936 Richard Leche won the battle to succeed Huey P. Long as governor of Louisiana and leader of the Long faction. Continue »
LeConniat, Madeleine “Mother Mary Hyacinth”
Mother Mary Hyacinth led nine Daughters of the Cross from France to central Louisiana in 1855 to open a convent and several schools. Continue »
Largely self-taught artist Michael Ledet uses bright acrylics on large canvases to juxtapose seemingly random figures and forms in composing works unorthodox in both perspective and scale. Continue »
Lee, Russell
Nationally acclaimed photographer Russell Lee produced series of photographs on Louisiana life, including scenes of rural communities and New Orleans, for the Great Depression-era Farm Security Administration (FSA) project. Continue »
-colorized.jpg)
