New Orleans Women and the Poydras Home: More Durable Than Marble by Pamela Tyler (review)

In the last fifteen years, scholars have begun to carefully explore the power and influence of religious women in New Orleans history. In their efforts to promote social and religious welfare through the establishment of schools, churches, and charity institutions, devout women not only challenged conventional roles for women, but they had notable power and influence in the South. Historians Emily Clark, Virginia Gould, and Edward Brett have examined the importance of charitable works and religious instruction by Catholic nuns in New Orleans; yet, few scholars have examined the benevolent efforts of Protestant women in the city. Pamela Tyler’s book, New Orleans Women and Poydras Home: More Durable Than Marble, is a welcomed volume that seeks to fill the gap in the historiography.

Tyler provides a detailed narrative about the Protestant women who have dedicated their lives to the care of orphan girls and elderly women at the Poydras Home for the past two hundred years. As indicated in the book’s title of the book, women are central to the narrative; however, Tyler focuses principally on the female board members and managers of the Poydras Home who administered the affairs of the institution. For its first 130 years, the women operated the Poydras Home as an orphan asylum for girls. By the 1950s, orphanages had largely given way to the foster care system, and the Poydras home transitioned into an elderly care facility, continuing its long tradition of caring for female residents. By the author’s own admission, this book is not particularly thesis-driven, but it serves as a thoroughly researched institutional history of the Poydras Home and the women who have dedicated their efforts to the home and its residents since the nineteenth century.

In what is perhaps the most captivating section of the book, Tyler engages an impressive number of primary sources to reconstruct the history of the Poydras Asylum’s first hundred years. In the years following the Louisiana Purchase, a group of newly arrived Protestant women organized the Female Orphan Society in response to the social instability in New Orleans wrought by wars, disease, and the Haitian Revolution. The women established an orphan asylum for girls and named it after their generous benefactor, Julien Poydras. In 1817, the incorporation of the Female Orphan Society granted the women legal rights to establish and operate the Poydras Home as a corporate entity. This move allowed the women to buy and sell property, control their own finances, and oversee the operation of the home—all without male leadership. Through her analysis of primary documents, including annual reports, minute books, letters, memos, and case notes from the Poydras Home, Pamela Tyler demonstrates that the women did not take their duties lightly. They carefully considered the best methods for guiding, educating, and caring for their wards. The records also reveal moments of strife and discord, most notably when the women debated whether to continue accommodating both Protestant and Catholic girls. Tyler effectively brings the records to life to paint a dynamic picture of the Poydras women’s continued efforts to accommodate needy girls in New Orleans, even as the city endured civil war and political turmoil.

The final two chapters, which cover the last one hundred years of the Poydras Home’s history, chart the home’s transition from girls’ orphanage to assisted living facility for elderly residents. Financial troubles combined with changing attitudes about orphanages, as well as increased intervention from the state, prompted the Poydras women to convert the home into a private, elderly care facility in the 1950s. Tyler concludes her narrative about the women with a moving account of their dedicated care for their residents during Hurricane Katrina and in the storm’s aftermath, highlighting the endurance of the Poydras Home and its female leadership.

The strength of Tyler’s book lies in the rich resources she draws on...