Blanche Douglass Leathers

Blanche Douglass Leathers (1860 - January 26, 1940) was the first woman master and a steamboat captain on the Mississippi River in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Her nicknames include "little captain,"[1] the "angel of the Mississippi" and the "lady skipper."[2]

Captain Blanch Douglass Leathers, drawing appearing in the Indianapolis News on 23 February 1895.

Biography

Leathers was born in Tensas Parish, Louisiana and her father was a cotton planter.[3][4] She married Captain Bowling S. Leathers in 1880 and had her honeymoon on his boat.[5] Her husband taught her how to pilot and navigate the river.[6][7]

Leathers earned her master's license in 1894.[8] Then Leathers began her historic voyage as the first woman steamboat captain on the Mississippi.[1] As the Natchez steamed away from New Orleans, tugs, ferries and freighters whistled in salute. Newspaper reporters interviewed her and she gave out autographs.[1] She would make regular trips from New Orleans to Vicksburg and was the only woman captain of a large Mississippi river packet.[2][9] Leathers said that she often managed the employees, performed boat inspections and then took over as captain when her husband needed.[6] In 1896, the Public Ledger wrote that Leathers had taken command of the Natchez.[10] She worked on the river for 18 years and then retired in New Orleans after the death of her husband.[5][11] In 1929, she came out of retirement and started piloting a steamboat, the Tennessee Belle.[5] The last time she renewed her pilot's license was in 1935.[12]

Leathers died in New Orleans on January 26, 1940[13] of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 79. A children's book, Steamboat! The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers was published in 1999 by Judith Heide Gilliland and illustrated by Holly Meade.[14] In 2009, Leathers was inducted into the National Rivers Hall of Fame.[12]

References

Citations
  1. Nott 1927, p. 3.
  2. "The Only Woman Skipper". The Pittsburgh Press. 19 July 1901. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "On the last trip of the steamer". The Richland Beacon-News. 22 December 1894. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Nott 1927, p. 1.
  5. "Romantic Mississippi's Only Woman Pilot Returns to River After Many Years". The Daily Independent. 8 October 1929. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. Nobles, Katharine (23 February 1895). "Capt. Blanche Leathers". The Indianapolis News. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. Holloway, Jane Hunter (23 August 1930). "Woman Captain of River Boat Lives a Quiet Life Now". The Oshkosh Northwestern. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. "A Full-Fledged Woman Captain". The Times-Picayune. 21 August 1894. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Captain Blanche Leathers On Deck". The Times-Picayune. 29 November 1894. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Flotsam - Jetsam - Ligan!". The Public Ledger. 28 February 1896. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. "Home Harder to Rule Than River Steamer, Says Woman Captain". The Dispatch. 30 August 1927. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. "Captain Blanche Douglass Leathers". National Rivers Hall of Fame Inductees. Retrieved 2018-05-07.
  13. "Mrs. Blanche Douglass Leathers". Chicago Tribune. 27 January 1940. Retrieved 2018-05-07 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. Bloom, Susan P. (March 2000). "Steamboat!". Horn Book Magazine. 76 (2): 211–212 – via EBSCOhost.

Sources
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