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Powerful Women of the New Orleans Underground

October 15, 2024

The stories of five madams illustrate the challenges of female entrepreneurs during and after Storyville.

A vintage illustration depicts five women, four standing and one seated, in glamorous attire. The seated woman wears a pink dress and floral headpiece. Curtains and a chandelier frame the scene. The caption reads, Lulu White and her Girls.

This presentation features profiles of five different women from antebellum to post-Storyville New Orleans to show the continuities and changes that occurred before, during, and after the Storyville era of prostitution. Featured madams include Kate Townsend, Josie Arlington, Lulu White, Willie Piazza, and Norma Wallace.

Learn more in this presentation created by Shelby Lanoux, HNOC Derven Scholar and student at Mount Carmel Academy.

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Text on a black background reads: Powerful Women of the New Orleans Underground (1860s-1960s) by Shelby Lanoux.
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Derven Scholars

Paid internships for college students interested in museum education

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A Derven Scholar intern works at a desk at the Historic New Orleans Collection.

Related Stories

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First Draft

How Blue Books Sold the Fantasy of Storyville

Guides to New Orleans’s prostitution district offer a fascinating, yet limited, window into a demimonde during the rise of consumerism.

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First Draft

The Burlesque Dancer Who Took Bourbon Street by Storm

Stacy “Stormy” Lawrence and her Casino Royale club were known for outlandish acts on Bourbon Street.

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Hugh Hefner Letter

The Playboy founder laments the effect of Jim Crow on his budding empire.

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A pamphlet for Poodle's Patio advertises a dancer named Galatea, featuring a photograph of her standing like a statue followed by the text "The Statue that Comes to Life".

Poodle’s Patio Pamphlet

During the golden age of Bourbon Street burlesque, Poodle’s Patio featured performers such as Galatea and Jezebel.

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Illustration of a woman in a red and black costume with a heart motif. She stands in front of a large red heart background, holding a ribboned staff and wearing a pointed hat. The style is vintage and theatrical.

Blue Books

Visitors to Storyville navigated the red-light district with help from these illustrated guides. 

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Related Virtual Exhibitions

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Virtual exhibitions

Storyville: Madams & Music

Explore the history of Storyville, New Orleans's legally sanctioned prostitution district that helped give birth to jazz.

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A grid of nine vintage black-and-white portraits featuring women from different backgrounds and styles, each wearing early 20th-century clothing. Some have numbers written on or near their portraits, suggesting a historical or cataloging context.

Related Books

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Books

Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans

by Pamela D. Arceneaux
with a foreword by Emily Epstein Landau

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Buy Now
Book cover for Guidebooks to Sin by Pamela D. Arceneaux. Features an outline of a woman in blue and red, with images of vintage blue books above the title. Subtext includes a foreword by Emily Epstein Landau.

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