Taken on February 22, 1898, the film depicts six floats from the parade. The theme that year was “Harvest Queens,” per the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate. People carried silver bell-shaped placards before each float to commemorate the Rex Organization’s 25th anniversary.
According to the Times, one float is pineapple-themed, with riders wearing hats shaped like pieces of pineapple and vests resembling pineapple skin. Another features the Rex, the “King of the Carnival,” sitting atop a float decorated with tasseled globes. The Rex that year was Charles A. Farwell.
“I never knew him,” Farwell’s granddaughter, Lynne Farwell White, tells the Times. “I never was face to face with him. I never saw him as a person—and there he was as a live person in the film. As a granddaughter, it was a special moment.”
Mardi Gras is one of the many worldwide celebrations that recognize Fat Tuesday—the last day before Lent, which historically was characterized by giving up meat, sweets and other delicacies. Originating in medieval Europe, by the 17th and 18th centuries the festivities had become an annual event for the French House of the Bourbons.
French settlers brought the practice to what would become the United States, celebrating the first Mardi Gras in 1703. (This first celebration actually took place in Mobile, Alabama.) The parades came later, with official processions starting in New Orleans in the 1830s; floats were introduced in 1856.
Footage shows that while Mardi Gras parades from over a century ago are in many ways similar to today’s, the festival has certainly evolved, the Times reports. For instance, while modern revelers often dress casually (and sometimes wear very little clothing at all), parade-goers in 1898 donned formal attire and carried parasols. People riding on floats were not throwing beads or coins into the crowd, and no police or barricades were present for crowd control.
On the flipside, one tradition from 1898 has since disappeared: The boeuf gras, or fatted ox, was once a live bull. The film shows an actual bovine perched atop one of the floats. This tradition ended in the early 20th century, writes the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, when officials decided it was “no longer tasteful.” Today’s parades opt instead for a papier-maché version.