Micaela Almonester, Baroness de Pontalba, 1795-1874

A portrait by Amelie Legrand de Saint-Aubin, early 19th century. Photo credit - Wikipedia

A wealthy New Orleans-born Creole aristocrat, businesswoman, real estate designer and developer, and the sponsor of Pontalba Buildings.

Born in New Orleans when it was a small town of about 6,000 residents, serving as the capital of the Spanish colony of Louisiana. When Micaela was 15 years old, her mother arranged her to marry her cousin Célestin Delfau de Pontalba. She moved to France for him and became the Baroness Pontalba.

Almonester was mistreated by her father in law and lost two fingers when he tried to kill her. She separated from her husband and secured the legal rights for her wealth. After a short return to New Orleans, she agreed to her husband’s request to take care of him back in France. She did so for 23 years until her death.

Micaela Almonester is famous in New Orleans for conceiving the Pontalba Buildings, an architectural landmark on Jackson Square. When the complex was finished in 1851, it contributed to revitalizing the center of the city. She inherited the land at the age of three from her father, who was considered to be the richest man in town. She endures as one of the most recalled and dynamic personalities in the city’s history, though she lived most of her life in Paris.

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“She was something of a curiosity to be whispered about,” Christina Vella in the book “Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of Baroness de Pontalba.”

“She was something of a curiosity to be whispered about,” Christina Vella in the book “Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of Baroness de Pontalba.”

Fun Facts

  • She was called Micael.
  • The mansion, which serves the US ambassador's residence in Paris was originally built for her.
  • The Swedish vocalist Jenny Lind was one of the first tenants of Pontalba Buildings during her tour in New Orleans.
  • The opera 'Pontalba' was written about her.
  • Through her life, she suffered from epileptic seizures. She had five children, but only three lived to adulthood.

Creations By and About Her

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Category: Arts and Business & Entrepreneurship
Tags: Architect, Businesswoman, and NOLA Women

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Ada Louise Huxtable WWP
Arts

Ada Louise Huxtable, 1921-2013

An architecture critic and a writer. Received the first-ever Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.

Born Ada Louise Landman in NYC, an only child in a middle-class Jewish family. Growing up in Manhattan, Huxtable loved strolling along the streets, fascinated by its building, such as the Grand Central Terminal, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Museum of Natural History. She studied art at Hunter College, graduating magna cum laude, and then architectural history at NYU Institute of Fine Arts. At the time, she worked in Bloomingdale’s furnishings department, where she met her soon-to-be husband, Garth Huxtable. In 1946, at 25, Huxtable landed a job as an assistant curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art. After five years, she left her job to study Italian architecture in Italy for a year. Upon her return, she began writing as a contributing editor for various art and architectural journals. At the age of 37, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship, in which she examined the structural and design advances of American architecture. In 1963, 42 years old Huxtable was hired as the first architecture critic at The New York Times, a position she held for almost 20 years. In her column, she wrote about new and old buildings, threatened buildings, and bad-designed buildings. She also mentioned emerging architects, architectural trends, movements, and exhibitions. Huxtable encouraged the everyday readers to look at buildings from a new perspective, not as an assembly of bricks and pilasters but as a public statement with history and meaning. Raising awareness of the city’s heritage, the urban environment, and civic engagement, she set the tone for modern architecture criticism, for which, at the age of 49, she was the first-ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. In 1981, at the age of 60, Huxtable received a MacArthur grant that allowed her in-depth research on subjects she was interested in, such as the development of the skyscraper, the negative impact of postmodernism building, and preservation vs. modernity. At 76, she returned to writing for the public as an architecture critic for The Wall Street Journal, publishing columns for the next 15 years. Throughout her career, Huxtable was involved in various committees, serving as a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Architectural Selection and Building Design Committees for the Getty Center, Getty Villa, and as a Jury member for The Pritzker Architecture Prize. She published more than 10 books on architecture, including “Kicked a Building Lately?,” “Goodbye History,” “Hello Hamburger,” and a biography of Frank Lloyd Wright. Huxtable died in NYC at 91. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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Economics & Finance

Adena Friedman, 1969

A businesswoman, the president and CEO of Nasdaq, the first woman in this position and to lead a global exchange.

Born Adena Robinson Testa in Baltimore, Maryland. She earned her BA in political science from Williams College in Massachusetts and an MBA from Vanderbilt University’s Owen Graduate School of Management. In 1993, at the age of 24, she married Michael Cameron Friedman. In that same year, she joined Nasdaq as an intern and soon began moving up. In her first 18 years at Nasdaq, Friedman served in various positions, such as marketing manager, head of data products, head of corporate strategy, and Chief Financial Officer. In 2011, at 42, Friedman left Nasdaq to join Carlyle Group, a private investment firm in Washington DC. There, she served as Chief Financial Officer and Managing Director. After three years, she returned to Nasdaq as president and Chief Operating Officer. In 2017, in addition to her role as president, 48 years old Freidman was appointed CEO of the Nasdaq. The first woman in this position and the first woman to lead a global exchange. She oversees the company’s business segments, focusing on efficiency, product development, expansion, and growth. Under her leadership, Nasdaq transformed into a leading global exchange and technology solutions company, operating across six continents. In addition to her work in Nasdaq, Freidman is also a member of several boards. Among them are – the board of directors at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the board of FCLTGlobal – a non-profit organization that works on ways to encourage long-term investing, and the board of Greater Washington, DC. A Chapter of Junior Achievement – a non-profit organization that supports teens in their way to financial independence. Freidman often speaks about women in leadership positions, advocating for mentoring and creating career opportunities for women in the financial industry. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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Fashion & Beauty

Anna Wintour, 1949

The legendary editor in chief of Vogue magazine; one of the most powerful fashion industry figures.

Anna Wintour was born in London, England, the eldest of five children. Her interest in fashion started at a young age, watching music television broadcasts and reading Seventeen magazine. She attended North London Collegiate School, where she was known for being a rebel for shortening the hemlines of her skirts. At age 15, she began to work at a fashion boutique, and at 16, she dropped out of school to participate in a training program at Harrods while taking fashion classes. Not long after, she began to work at OZ magazine. At the age of 21, Harper’s & Queen magazine hired her as an editorial assistant, and a few years later, she moved to NYC to work as a junior fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, from which she got fired because she “did not understand the American market.” Afterward, she found an editor position at an erotic magazine for women, and when it shut down, she took a hiatus from work for a couple of years. In 1980, she returned to NYC and worked as a fashion editor in several magazines until she landed a position as Vogue’s first creative director. At the time, she began dating her future husband, David Shaffer and got married in 1984. The following year, she moved back to London to take over the UK Vogue. After two years, she relocated to NYC to edit House & Garden magazine but shortly after, she was appointed editor-in-chief of US Vogue. In her new position, she made radical changes in the magazine, renewing its focus on fashion and changing the style of the cover pictures. She began to present unfamiliar models and famous women on the covers and mixed high fashion with inexpensive clothes. Under her editorship, the magazine became at the forefront of the fashion world, setting new trends and launching the careers of many models, photographers, and designers. She became and still is the fashion world queen and a fashion icon. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
Annie Turnbo Malone WWP
Business & Entrepreneurship

Annie Turnbo Malone, 1869-1957

An inventor and entrepreneur who established one of the first black-oriented cosmetic empires and the first African-American woman self-made millionaire.

Annie Minerva Turnbo Malone was born in Metropolis, Illinois, the tenth of eleven children of formerly enslaved parents. Her parents died when she was young, and she moved to nearby Peoria to live with her sister. There, she attended high school and developed an interest in chemistry. She was also fascinated with hair, often styling her sister’s hair and becoming aware of the differences between hair textures. These days, women used soap, heavy oils, goose fat, and bacon grease to straighten curly hair, which irritated the scalp and damaged the hair. Combining her love of hair and chemistry, she began experimenting on herself, developing a hair product that straightened black hair with no side effects. In 1900, at the age of 31, Turnbo moved to Lovejoy (today Brooklyn, Illinois) and began manufacturing a line of hair straightener products, including a hair-stimulant for African-American women, “Wonderful Hair Grower.” Her target customers were black women who could not access traditional distribution places, so Turnbo promoted her products by going door-to-door and offering free demonstrations. After achieving success in the local market, she wanted to expand her clientele and moved to St. Louis, MO, where she hired three employees who continued her door-to-door method. Soon after, she opened her first shop. Turnbo held news conferences and went on tours throughout the South to promote her products, giving demonstrations and recruiting women as local sales agents. By 1910, she broadened her line to include cosmetics, and under the label Poro, she manufactured lipstick, shades, cold cream, face powder, and her famous hair grower. In 1914, at the age of 45, Turnbo married her second husband, Aaron Eugene Malone, and appointed him as the company’s chief manager and president. In 1918, she founded a cosmetology school called Poro College. The college curriculum included classes on nurturing and styling black hair as well as personal coaching on how to walk, talk, and dress as a “Poro agent.” The college building had a retail store, manufacturing plant, auditorium, offices, chapel, gymnasium, and dormitory. It served as a community center and a meeting place for organizations such as the National Negro Business League. The center became a source of employment for many African Americans, especially women. Through the school and the Poro franchise, Turnbo’s business employed almost 75,000 women in the US, South America, Africa, and the Philippines. By the 1920s, Turnbo became one of the wealthiest African American women, with an estimated worth of $14 million. Despite her wealth, she lived modestly, donating thousands of dollars to various establishments, such as the local black YMCA, the Tuskegee Institute, and the Howard University College of Medicine, in addition to supporting two students in every black land-grant college in the US. In 1927, at the age of 58, Turnbo divorced her husband. He forced her into a court battle in which he demanded half of its value as the company’s president. She reached a settlement that affirmed her as the business’s sole owner but harmed the business’s financial worth. Three years later, she relocated her business to Chicago to a city block she bought. During the 40s-50s, she spent much of her time fighting lawsuits in court, first from a former employee who claimed credit for her success and then from the government for unpaid taxes. Eventually, she had to sell most of her properties to pay her debts. Afterward, the business continued to operate but on a significantly smaller scale. Turnbo continued to run her business until she died of a stroke at the age of 87. This post is also available in: Español Read more...
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