Carnival Leftovers: The Ephemera of New Orleans Mardi Gras
John T. Magill

Every community generates its own unique ephemera. In New Orleans such ephemera results from Mardi Gras. The Mardi Gras, or carnival, season is one of the most important and eagerly anticipated annual events in the Crescent City. It begins officially on January 6, Epiphany or Twelfth Night, and concludes on Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday, a movable holiday varying in date from early February to early March.

Several weeks of parades make up the public spectacle of carnival. Its non-public side revolves around numerous tableau balls, some of which are preceded by a parade and are the culmination of the city’s social and debutante season. Both parades and balls are produced and financed by carnival krewes, the private organizations that are the lifeblood of Mardi Gras. The oldest is the Mistick Krewe of Comus, established in 1857, followed by the Twelfth Night Revelers in 1870, and by Rex, king of carnival, and the Knights of Momus, both founded in 1872. Later groups include Proteus, organized in 1882, and the Phunny Phorty Phellows, which survived from 1878 to 1900.¹

Every year krewes chose new themes and encouraged often-unnamed artists and designers–traditionally most carnival activities have been deliberately shrouded in secrecy–to depict the themes imaginatively.² The results have been sometimes breath-taking concoctions exhibiting exceptional artistic and production skills, especially in the years before World War I. While mythology has been the mainstay of carnival themes, others have been based upon anything from the delights of earth, fairyland, and the heavens to corrupt politicians and Dante’s Inferno.

Each carnival season leaves Orleanians with an array of memorabilia. This includes not only mounds of beads and doubloons tossed to excited crowds by masked parade-float riders, but ball costumes and jewelry, stage sets and props, and the original designs upon which much of this was based. Among the most interesting and colorful carnival leftovers are printed works, embracing parade papers and the ephemera of long-past balls– invitations, admit cards, and dance programs. A parade paper was a special newspaper edition that hit the streets on the day of the parade it described, providing richly detailed depictions of parade floats based upon their designers’ drawings. Costing ten cents and folded into a size suitable for mailing, a parade paper when opened was about the size of a double newspaper sheet.³

In the late 1870s James Hummel published the first parade papers in the Weekly Budget. They were devoted to Comus, Rex, Momus, and the Twelfth Night Revelers, the only parades at that time. By 1881 W. A. Fauch published parade editions entitled New Orleans Carnival, printed by the Gravuretype Company of Boston. Both presented float pictures in black and white, but New Orleans Carnival interpreted them with greater clarity and detail and included an illustration of the ball invitation as well.⁴

In the mid-1880s the New Orleans Times-Democrat, a daily newspaper, distributed parade papers, including among its earliest the 1882 edition highlighting the Knights of Momus. Although it was lithographed by a Baltimore firm, A. Hoen & Co.,⁵ there was a growing trend at the time for parade papers to be lithographed in New Orleans. In 1884 the Southern Lithographic Company of that city produced the Times-Democrat special editions of Comus, Rex, and Momus.⁶

At this time parade papers began to appear in color. Hoen lithographed one in limited color, and the Southern Lithographic Company printed some of the first multi-hued New Orleans parade papers. Those bright, colorful editions ushered parade papers into the period of their most elaborate design, which would last until World War I. Both Hoen and the Southern Lithographic Company depicted floats in vignettes arranged in four rows, filling one full side of the unfolded paper. This format remained standard for most parade papers during the next six decades.

About 1885 the Southern Lithographic Company ceased business and the Times-Democrat turned to Shuber and Carqueville of Chicago for the Proteus edition of 1885.⁷ Around the same time the New Orleans Daily Picayune and the lithographer T. Fitzwilliam & Co. of New Orleans began to produce and to distribute parade papers, starting with Rex in 1885 and Proteus the next year.⁸ From the 1890s until the early twentieth century the Daily Picayune dominated the parade paper business, continuing to use the format and colorful production techniques initiated by the Times-Democrat while making the papers’ appearance even more lavish and imaginative. Both journals’ parade papers were special issues entitled Carnival Edition under the banners of their newspapers.

During the latter part of the 1880s another lithographer, Koeckert & Walle, produced several parade papers, including the 1889 issue of the Knights of Electra, published by J. Hollander, and the editions for the Phunny Phorty Phellows, issued during the krewe’s waning years of the late l800s by the Daily ltem.⁹ Early in the twentieth century Koeckert & Walle evolved into Walle & Co. and began to produce the bulk of parade papers.¹⁰ Walle & Co. printed its first Rex and Momus papers in 1902, followed by those of Comus in 1905 and Proteus in 1912. In a new move, Walle took over distribution, and by 1912 daily newspapers ceased to be involved with special carnival editions. Walle dominated the parade paper business until World War I (see Figure 1).¹¹ The firm called each of its editions Carnival Bulletin, along with the name of the krewe. This title continued in use until World War II, and the term now is often applied to all parade papers, regardless of actual title or date.

After the United States entered World War I in 1917, carnival festivities were suspended for the duration. Parade papers became available again in 1922, produced and distributed by the lithographic firm of Searcy & Pfaff, Ltd.¹² During this period, parade papers grew less florid in style, less imaginative, and less colorful. While the float illustrations remained essentially unchanged in size, they became somewhat less detailed and noticeably less colorful. These changes conformed to the less romantic, clean-lined tastes of the 1920s and 1930s, but they must have also reflected increased production costs. In 1925 the price per issue was raised to fifteen cents.¹³

Searcy & Pfaff continued to produce parade papers until 1941, when the United States entered World War II. Again, carnival was discontinued until hostilities ceased. This time the regular publication of carnival bulletins was not resumed. A few post-war parade papers were produced, but without the ambition or quality of their predecessors.

Throughout the years during which carnival bulletins were issued, some deviated from the standard design. In the late 1870., issues of Weekly Budget, for example, include a short story and a column of jokes.¹⁴ In 1896 Koeckert & Walle produced a splendid bulletin covering the Phunny Phorty Phellows for the Daily Item. Here the floats were shown not in rows, but as separate framed vignettes. Together with a view of the New Orleans skyline from the Mississippi River, these were arranged at varying angles on the page with playful elves and accompanied by the symbols of the krewe–a bespectacled donkey and an owl.¹⁵

Illustrated books sometimes served as parade souvenirs. One for Comus in 1873 portrayed the famous–or infamous– theme "The Missing Links to Darwin’s Origin of Species," which depicted Reconstruction officials as the missing links. In 1878 Comus issued a beautifully illustrated and poetic souvenir picturing the "Metamorphosis of Ovid."¹⁶ Other examples are more accurately described as book versions of parade papers, because each float was allotted a full page. T. Fitzwilliam & Co. and the Daily Picayune produced a book for Proteus in 1888, wherein a description of the parade and a short history of Mardi Gras preceded several pages of advertising. In 1900 the Bucklin Advertising Concern distributed a similar issue for Rex, containing full-page advertisements on the reverse of almost every page, at a cost of ten cents per copy (see Figure 2).¹⁷

All carnival bulletins are a rich source of advertisements which provide an interesting study in themselves. When taken as a whole, they reveal how advertising trends altered between the 1870s and World War II and suggest the changing readership to which the bulletins were geared. In the early papers, advertising was directed toward the local audience. Although publicity for hotels and restaurants appeared, most advertisers were retail businessmen, such as proprietors of stores that sold dry goods, clothing, household goods, and wholesale hardware. By the early twentieth century, advertising for hotels and the luxury retail trade became prominent. Along with a growing number of tourist-oriented promotions, those touting business development in Louisiana proliferated. In 1885, typical advertisements boosted enterprises such as E. C. Keller’s French Millinery Shop, Robinson’s Mammoth Dime Circus, and Duffy Malt Whiskey, which claimed to cure "dispepsia, indigestion and all wasting diseases."¹⁸

Many advertisements were illustrated and constitute an important source of imagery for research purposes. Parade papers in 1889, for example, provided views of the New Orleans National Bank on Camp Street, Vonderbank’s Hotel on Magazine Street, and the Junius Hart Music Store on Canal Street. By World War I, larger single advertisements tended to replace the small ones that were so common in the century just past. A growing number publicized industrial and business promoters such as the Acme Oil Company, which in 1917 declared "Louisiana a Loading Oil Producing State" By the 1930s the New Orleans Association of Commerce was a prominent advertiser. In 1932 the association urged businessmen to look toward New Orleans and "build on a rising market."¹⁹

Anybody could purchase a parade paper. Less available, but more eagerly sought, are invitations to carnival tableau bells. Among the most lavish ephemera of Mardi Gras, invitations have often equaled the color and brilliance of balls themselves. Generally portraying the theme of the tableau, invitations are a happy keepsake of an enjoyable event?²⁰

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, guest lists were limited, partly because the krewes were exclusive organizations, but also because the theaters where balls were held–the French Opera House, the Grand Opera House, and the Athenaeum–were small. Consequently, invitations were few. At first, to prevent theft, they and the accompanying admit cards were hand-delivered by the Boylon Detective Agency. Later the telegraph company distributed them, but finally the task was entrusted to the United States Post Office. As krewes began moving into the large Municipal Auditorium in 1930, some guest lists, although remaining very selective, were allowed to expand.²¹

Multi-colored lithographed illustrations decorated Comus’s oldest invitations. They generally pictured some combination of fairies, flowers, dreamy scenes, comic characters, and fat monarchs. Lithographers’ names seldom appeared, but many invitations, such as the Comus summons of 1867 which was created by E. Boehler, were printed in New Orleans.²² Rex at first sent simple engraved invitations written in French, but in 1875 the king of carnival too began issuing colorful illustrated invitations–in that year an image of the Rex coat-of-arms.²³ During this period invitations became increasingly elaborate. Often printed beautifully, die-cut, and folded into intricate patterns, they set the standard for the next two decades. As new krewes formed, they vied to produce the most elegant ones.²⁴

Mardi Gras costumes and jewelry commonly were made in France, and in the early 1880s Rex captain George H. Braughn began having the organization’s invitations, admit cards, and dance programs lithographed there, often with splendid results.²⁵ Lithographers signed a few invitations, disclosing the origins of some of these lovely works. In 1885 the Rex invitation, a die-cut tournament tent which when opened revealed a series of chivalric scenes, was executed by F. Appel, 12 Rue du Delta, Paris. Two years later Sicard, another Paris firm, produced one of the most lavish Rex invitations, which unfolded on a stately king surrounded by vignettes of eighteenth-century French courtiers (see Figure 3). At least one other krewe followed Rex to France to engage a lithographer. Proteus in 1890 authorized F. Appel to produce a multi-winged affair of fairies and knights.²⁶

Despite Rex’s preference for French engravers, other carnival krewes still employed American firms. In 1875 the Twelfth Night Revelers commissioned A. Hoen of Baltimore for that year’s simple folded invitation. Proteus in 1884 hired Meyer, Merkil and Ottmann of New York to create a folded series of vignettes depicting imperial views of ancient Rome and other locales.²⁷ The Phunny Phorty Phellows, which sent some of the finest late nineteenth-century invitations, preferred local concerns. In 1883 T.

Fitzwilliam & Co. produced a folding invitation with scenes from A Midsummer Nights Dream and, on the back, a padded sachet Koeckert & Walle made the Phunny Phorty Phellows’ intricate 1896 die-cut invitation in the shape of an owl with its wings attached by a silken cord. The wings lifted to reveal several light-hearted social vignettes.²⁸

Dance programs were an important part of most balls as late as the 1930s. Here were listed the dances played during the evening, with blanks where a lady wrote the names of her partners. Dance programs often resembled invitations and could be equally lavish. Most were simple booklets, but one of the loveliest, made far Proteus in 1892, was colorfully printed on pasteboard, die-cut in the shape of pansies and butterflies and when opened was threedimensional.²⁹

By the late 1890s invitations were becoming less ornate. In 1896 the Twelfth Night Revelers began sending a simple, worded card with its initials set against a burst of sunlight. Proteus in 1896 presented a large card engraved with a scene from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Two years later Proteus sent a die-cut scene of a devil playing a lute to an angel, but by 1902 the krewe had abandoned intricate die-cut invitations in favor of cards illustrated with colorful, romantic, or exotic scenes. Finally, in 1916, Proteus adopted simple worded invitations.³⁰ In 1902 Rex stopped sending the French invitations for which the krewe had become so famous and turned to Walle & Co. to print simple unillustrated invitations. Rex’s dance programs, which were also made by Walle, remained pictorial but were less ambitious than earlier programs.³¹

Some krewes continued to send lithographed invitations. For several years beginning in 1899, Comus sent invitations designed in the then-popular art nouveau style. In 1908 Comus sent one of the most lavish of the early twentieth-century invitations. It unfolded into a series of birds’ wings to reveal scenes of life in exotic countries. By 1916 even Comus had abandoned die-cut invitations for illustrated cards similar to those adopted by Proteus.³²

After World War I Comus and other krewes continued to send illustrated invitations (see Figure 4) , but they were not of the quality found before the war–especially before 1900. In recent years, numerous carnival organizations have begun to revive the tradition of illustrated invitations. While some are artistically imaginative and of high quality, none have approached the grandeur of the finest of the late nineteenth-century Mardi Gras invitations.³³

The glory days of printed carnival ephemera stretched from the late 1870s to World War I. We are fortunate that much of it survives, especially because our own age no longer produces the rich quality of Mardi Gras ephemera that our ancestors knew. Carnival krewes may try to revive the look of past work, but past quality is prohibitively expensive. Old-fashioned parade papers, for example, undoubtedly would be so costly to produce that they would not be feasible commercially.

Past carnivals will always be with us. Most Orleanians have been slow to dispose of even the simplest carnival leftover. Certainly such ephemera is consciously and lovingly preserved, because, like most souvenirs, it provides enjoyable memories that last a lifetime–and, as part of the community of memories, last for generations.

References

¹ Few general histories of the New Orleans Mardi Gras exist, and those are of a popular nature. Arthur Burton La Cour and Stuart Omer Landry, New Orleans Masquerade: Chronicles of Carnival (New Orleans: Pelican Publishing Co., 1956), and Leonard V. Huber, Mardi Gras: A Pictorial History of Carnival in New Orleans (Gretna, La.: Pelican Publishing Co., 1977) provide useful overviews of the festival.

²Huber, Mardi Gras, 26-27.

³lbid., 35; La Cour, New Orleans Masquerade, 209.

⁴La Cour, New Orleans Masquerade, 209; Weekly Budget: Rex, Mar. 5, 1878, and Comus, Mar. 6, 1878; New Orleans Carnival: Rex and Comus, Mar. 1, 1881. All materials footnoted are from the holdings of the Historic New Orleans Collection.

⁵La Cour, New Orleans Masquerade, 210; Knights of Momus Carnival Edition,

The Times Democrat, Feb. 16, 1882.

⁶ The Times Democrat Carnival Edition of Rex, Feb. 26, 1884, Proteus, Feb 25, 1884, and Knights of Momus, Feb. 21, 1884. The Southern Lithographic Company began business in 1883. In 1884 it merged with the New Orleans Lithographing Company and around 1885 went out of business. Patricia Brady Schmit, Rosanne McCaffrey, and John A. Mahé II, eds., Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists, 1718-1918 (New Orleans: The Historic New Orleans Collection, 1987). During the company’s short-lived history the high quality of its work was often praised. The Daily States of Feb. 3, 1884 said, "...no doubt all of our great Mardi Gras receptions and balls will employ this company to do their work...." Figero of Dec. 8,1883 reported, "...it compares favorably with similar work done anywhere in the country...."

⁷ The Times-Democrat Carnival Edition of the Krewe of Proteus, Feb. 16,1885.

⁸ T. Fitzwilliam and Co., Ltd. was active in New Orleans from 1860-1932. Thomas W. Fitzwilliam came to New Orleans from Ireland and began a printing establishment that by 1872 was producing lithography. With the demise of the Southern Lithographic Company about 1885,Fitzwilliam had a near monopoly in the field of lithography in New Orleans. The company was especially noted for its parade papers. Schmit [and others], New Orleans Artists; Carnival Edition of The Picayune: Rex, Feb.17, 1885, and Krewe of Proteus, Mar. 9, 1886.

9 Koeckert & Walle was founded by Gustave Koeckert and Bernard John Walle in 1889. The Company was active until 1896. Koeckert had previously been with the New Orleans Lithographic Company, which later merged with the Southern Lithographic Company. Schmit [and others], New Orleans Artists; La Cour, New Orleans Masquerade, 210; The Daily Item Carnival Edition ... 9th Representation Phunny Phorty Phellows, Feb. 18, 1896; Carnival Knights of Electra, Feb.28, 1889.

¹⁰ Walle & Company was incorporated by Bernard and John Walle in 1897 after the demise of Koeckert & Walls. The new firm was noted for its use of chromolithography and is credited ac one of the first in the United States to master a four-color printing process. Following Walle’s death in 1929, the company was dissolved and reorganized as Walle & Co. It continues to operate as Walle Corporation. Schmit [and others], New Orleans Artists.

¹¹ Rex Edition Carnival Bulletin, Feb. 11, 1902; Momus Edition Carnival Bulletin,

Feb. 6, 1902; Proteus Edition Carnival Bulletin, Feb. 19, 1912; La Cour, New

Orleans Masquerade, 210.

¹² Searcy & Pfaff, Ltd. was founded in 1889 by David J. Searcy and William Pfaff; later Luke Gaharn joined the partnership. Following Searcy’s death ca. 1901, his widow Wanda became a partner. The company last appeared in the New Orleans City Directory in 1960. New Orleans, Louisiana: The Crescent City (New Orleans: George W. Engelhardt, 1903-1904), 216; Soards and Polk’s City Directories, 1894-1960.

¹³ Rex Edition Carnival Bulletin, Feb. 24, 1925; Comus Edition Carnival Bulletin, Feb. 24, 1925.

¹⁴ Weekly Budget: Rex, Mar. 5, 1878, and Comus, Mar. 6, 1878.

¹⁵ The Daily Item Carnival Edition ... 9^th Representation Phunny Phony Phellows, Feb. 18, 1896.

¹⁶ Ye Mistick Krewe of Comus 1873; Mistick Krewe of Comus Festival, Shrove Tuesday 1878.

¹⁷ Krewe of Proteus Fifth Presentation (New Orleans: Daily Picayune, 1886); Carnival Rex Edition (New Orleans: Bucklin Advertising Concern, 1900).

¹⁸ Daily Picayune Carnival Edition: Rex, Feb. 17, 1885.

¹⁹ Daily Picayune Carnival Edition: Rex, Mar. 5,1889; Rex Edition Carnival Bulletin, Feb. 20, 1917, and Feb. 9, 1932.

²⁰ "Invitation to the Ball," The Times Picayune New Orleans States Magazine (Feb. 16, 1947), 16.

²¹ Huber, Mardi Gras, 29; "Invitation to the Ball," 16, 18.

²² Invitation to Comus ball, 1867.

²³ Invitation to Rex ball, 1875.

²⁴ Huber, Mardi Gras, 33.

²⁵ Charles Dufour and Leonard V. Huber, If Ever I Cease to Love: One Hundred Years of Rex, 1872-1971 (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing Co., 1972), 43.

²⁶ Invitations to Rex balls, 1885, 1887, 1890; invitation to Proteus ball, 1884.

²⁷ Invitation to Twelfth Night Revelers ball, 1875; invitation to Proteus ball, 1884.

²⁸ Invitations to Phunny Phorty Phellows balls, 1883, 1896.

²⁹ Dance program from Proteus ball, 1892.

³⁰ Invitation to Twelfth Night Revelers ball, 1896; invitations to Proteus ball, 1896, 1898; sample of invitations to Proteus balls, 1902-1916.

³¹ Invitation to Rex ball, 1902; dance program from Rex ball, 1911; Dufour and Huber, If Ever I Cease to Love, 57; Huber, Mardi Gras, 29.

³² Sample of invitations to Comus balls, 1899-1908; Huber, Mardi Gras, 29.

³³ Sample of invitations to various balls, 1922-1941; Huber, Mardi Gras, 31.

John T. Magill is assistant curator at the Historic New Orleans Collection.

The Ephemera Society acknowledges with thanks the editor of Louisiana Libraries for granting permission to reproduce this article from Volume 53, Number 2, published in Fall 1990.