This exhibit celebrates the contributions of women by describing the lives and achievements of several dozen female property and business owners in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Ne w Orleans\, selected at random from business directories\, court documents \, and other general sources available in the New Orleans Public Library&r squo\;s Louisiana Division/City Archives. \; \;
\nA few are well known\, but many of the others lived and worked in relative anonymity . Some were successful business owners\, while many struggled to support t hemselves and their families. Some were widows who\, despite a lack of pri or experience\, continued to operate their husbands&rsquo\; businesses\, o ften very successfully\, sometimes temporarily. Some were single women who found their own individual avenues in the economic structure of the city. Some were wives or daughters who inherited property\; others acquired rea l estate on their own. All had to battle the social and economic norms of a male-dominated society that made successful female enterprise far less a ttainable than it is today. Considered together\, they provide us with a g limpse into typical female enterprise in New Orleans during the period.
\nAn online version of the exhibit can be viewed here.
\ n\nhttps://neworleans.libnet.info/event/1640031 URL;VALUE=URI:https://neworleans.libnet.info/event/1640031 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR