06/03/2026
One of the stories told on the walls of our museum is that of John Law and the Mississippi Bubble, a financial scheme that promised wealth and opportunity in Louisiana.
Law envisioned Louisiana as a grand venture. But a colony needed more than investors. It needed settlers.
At the same time, Paris had overcrowded institutions filled with poor, abandoned, and accused women. Through a partnership of government officials, colonial planners, and administrators at places like La Salpêtrière, women were selected and sent across the Atlantic to help populate the colony.
One of those women was Marie Anne Fourché.
Accused of prostitution after being reported by her own brothers, Marie Anne was confined within a system that offered few protections and even fewer choices. In December 1719, she boarded La Mutine bound for Louisiana.
Of the 132 women who began that journey, only about 62 survived.
Yet Marie Anne did more than survive.
She married, raised a family, outlived two husbands, and lived to the age of 79. Her descendants would include LaCasses, Guillorys, Elys, Duponts, and Krebses,names that would become deeply woven into the history of the Gulf Coast.
Three centuries later, the Mississippi Bubble is remembered as one of history's great financial failures.
But the women sent to Louisiana left behind something far more lasting.
Their families.
The descendants of women like Marie Anne Fourché still live throughout the Gulf Coast today.
And that may be the most remarkable legacy of all.
🏠 Come explore the stories behind the names on our walls and discover how the lives of ordinary people shaped the history of the Gulf Coast.
🕰 Museum Hours
Monday–Saturday | 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Sunday | Noon – 5 p.m.
📸 Colorized and enhanced interpretation of Adam Pérelle's circa 1660 engraving, L'Hospital de la Salpêtrière hors la Porte Saint-Bernard. Originally founded as a hospital and poorhouse in Paris, La Salpêtrière later became the institution through which many women, including future Gulf Coast ancestor Marie Anne Fourché, passed before being sent to Louisiana.
