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MARY CATHERINE COONEY SEAMAN

Mary Catherine Cooney Seaman was born in Lexington, Kentucky, but grew up in New Orleans. In 1878, she married Professor John E. Seaman and soon pursued an education as a kindergarten teacher in St. Louis, Missouri. Back in New Orleans, she opened a select school for children in 1881. That enterprise evolved into the Southern Academic Institute and remained in operation until several years before Mrs. Seaman’s death in 1909 (actually, she died as Mrs. John R. Currie after remarrying following Professor Seaman’s demise in 1899).

This portrait of Mrs. Seaman appeared in the Daily Picayune with an article titled, “Women of Louisiana.” That glowing column noted that, “Though advantageously gifted with rare mental powers, she has labored unceasingly…. She has not only been an honor to her state, she has been worthy of her sex.”

(Daily Picayune, April 28, 1889)

Six years after launching her endeavor, Mrs. Seaman built a new school on Coliseum between Third and Fourth Streets in the Garden District. “The building is the first erected by a woman solely for educational purposes in New Orleans, and probably in the South...,” wrote the Daily Picayune on October 1, 1887. This photograph of the former school was taken in 1946. After extensive renovation, the property became a single-family residence. From 1963-1971 it was the home of General L. Kemper Williams, founder of The Historic New Orleans Collection.

(Alexander Allison Photograph Collection, Residences—Garden District, #20)

An ad for Mrs. Seaman's school.

(Business Directory of New Orleans and Vicinity, 1889)
Sketch and description of Mrs. Seaman’s school.

(The City of New Orleans. Book of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Louisiana and Other Public Bodies of the “Crescent City”, 1894)