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.

[8] Then Leathers began her historic voyage as the first woman steamboat captain on the Mississippi.

[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.

The Story of Captain Blanche Leathers was published in 1999 by Judith Heide Gilliland and illustrated by Holly Meade.