Let The Good Times Roll - Mistick Krewe of Comus

I'd seen many of these caricatures before, especially the Ben Butler hyena, but didn't realize they were costume designs!
 
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Mardi Gras at the Henry Clay statue on Canal Street.
 
Once again New Orleans takes its place uncontested at the top- far and away, our most fascinating city. What a perfect thread, thanks hugely, 18th!

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LoC

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Pinterest, I see via Tulane, for this one. Someone much better versed in faces of the day must identify her.
 
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I'd seen many of these caricatures before, especially the Ben butler hyena, but didn't realize they were costume designs!

In the beginning of Mardi Gras parading, as noted above, the Creoles of Downtown and the Americans of Uptown were at odds over Mardi Gras. But, after the trials of the Civil War, the posturing of that period was left behind and the focus was more on Reconstruction governments and officials. There were no floats in 1873, but the brass band of the 19th Infantry Army, which was occupying New Orleans, accompanied the parade. The Metropolitan police refused to allow the Comus Krewe of revelers into the French Quarter. One source says that in the following year, all of the Krewe of Comus members would join with the White League in the Battle of Liberty Place.

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An invitation to a Mistick Krewe of Comus Ball.


The political caricaturing was continued into contemporary times by the Krewe of Momus, whose floats always presented a satire about Louisiana politicians. Momus stopped parading after the 1992 city ordinance that required integration of the krewes. Momus floats must have been expensive for such a small krewe, as they featured new papier mache images each year of whomever was being lampooned.
 
After gazing in wonder at the Charles Briton designs, I thought it might be interesting to see how some traditions of Mardi Gras have carried through to present revelers.

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Shrimp costume from 1873.


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Mardi Gras truck parade giant crawfish.
 
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Lion


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This person is not in a parade, she's simply following the long tradition of masking for Mardi Gras.

My husband and I once masked and came in 2nd in a costume contest in a suburban parade route. A police officer shook hands with him and didn't even recognize him--we figured it a successful costume.
 
Okay, had to add these costumes in, because they're so wonderful. Imagine them 8 feet tall--apparently the parade featured 100 costumes, from the sponge to the gorilla.


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Magnolia
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Mermaid

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Morning Glories
 
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Tableaus were presented at the balls of the early Mardi Gras krewes. This watercolor of a proposed Comus tableau in 1870 is by Charles Briton.
 
The 1873 Darwin Origin of the Species parade perhaps foretold the violence that would erupt in 1874 with The Battle of Liberty Place. Each group in the parade featured a part of a poem written on transparent paper and lighted up. The group that satirized the black elected officials under the Reconstruction government read:

. . Chacma Monkeys fall like ripened grapes
Resistless victims of the Bearded Apes;
That mandrills, lost in soft voluptuous swoons,
Should grace the nuptials of the bold Baboons
And Chimpanzees, from waving tree tops hang,
To court caresses from the fond Orang.
Oh! Rosy hues of Time’s dim twilight morn!
In such an hour the “Missing Link” was born;
The great gorilla, flinging wide the gate
Of Darwin’s Eden, and our high estate.


The designs for the costumes in this part of the parade were:

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Gorilla

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Baboon

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Orangutan

The gorilla costume was the last in the parade and caricatured P. B. S. Pinchback, an African American who had briefly served as governor. An article in the Daily Picayune which talked about the parade compared the gorilla costume to “the broader-mouthed varieties of our own citizens, so Ethiopian in his exuberant glee.” http://civilwarwomen.wp.tulane.edu/...i-gras-from-the-civil-war-to-the-present-day/
 
I'd seen many of these caricatures before, especially the Ben butler hyena, but didn't realize they were costume designs!

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An engraving of the era showing the costumes and the papier mache heads. The caption reads, "ASSORTING AT ALABAN'S COSTUME DEPOT, ON CAMP STREET, THE COSTUMES RECENTLY ARRIVED FROM PARIS."

As mentioned elsewhere, 1873 was the first year the heads and the costumes were manufactured and sewn in New Orleans. Some of them were 8 feet tall.
 
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You can see the link between the Mardi Gras traditions that started just prior to the Civil War and have continued into the present. The Blaine Kern company has produced many of the largest floats over the years.

 
We really enjoyed visiting Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World a few years ago. The floats and other displays were amazing. We also really liked perusing the Mardi Gras memorabilia upstairs at Brennan's. @18thVirginia - Have you ever visited the Mardi Gras Museum in Lake Charles? It's on our list. The museum's guides are a former Mardi Gras king and queen.
 
Had forgotten this thread, thanks so much for the reminder! You could pour over these old illustrations forever and ever, which will happen if I lose my mind and go look them up. As with most NOLA history- can't stay away.
 
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