A Young Man In Tyrolean Costume 1872 by Franz Von Defregger
Monday, February 28, 2011
Philippe Chéry (1759-1838) : La Mort d'Alcibiade 1825
Philippe Chéry (1759-1838) : La Mort d'Alcibiade 1825
Jane Russell I will miss you! This is my all time favorite scene in a movie
Jane Russell passed today February 28, 2011 at aged 89)
The Guitar Tuner. Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805).
The Guitar Tuner. Jean Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805).
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
“La Fraternité des peuples” 1883. by Aimé-Jules Dalou on the Town Hall, Paris. 10th arrondissement
“La Fraternité des peuples” 1883. by Aimé-Jules Dalou on the Town Hall, Paris. 10th arrondissement
Louis XIV's black daughter Louise Marie-Therese, the Black Nun of Moret
The above portrait, dated 1695, is displayed in the library of St. Genevieve in the Latin Quarter of Paris (bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, 10, place du Panthéon, 75005 Paris). An unsigned portrait, it's titled: Louise Marie-Therese, the Black Nun of Moret (1664-1732). Cloistered all her life, she is said to have taken the veil in 1695, at the late age of 31. A folder at St. Genevieve is said to bear the title, "Documents Concerning The Princess Louise Marie-Therese, Daughter of Louis XIV and Marie-Therese." The folder is empty.
On November 16 1664 Maria Teresa of Spain wife of Louis XIV of France the Sun king gave birth to a daughter named Marie-Anne de France in public in the Louvre one month prematurely. Laughter is said to have greeted her birth. She was the third child and second daughter of Maria Teresa of Spain. The child was born black, rumors ran wild in the court. The child was said to have been born black as ink from head to toe, covered with hair. and died on the 26 December 1664 and was buried at Saint Denis. Reasons giving at the time for the child being born black was Maria Teresa of Spain was supposedly frightened by a black page before the child's birth and that she drink too much hot chocolate. End of story? No!
It was said that the black child was fathered by an African dwarf named Nabo, a young man from Dahomey brought from his country to France he became one of the Queen's favorites. No less than 6 memorialists have devoted paragraphs to Louise Marie-Thérèse : she is mentioned in the memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, the Grande Mademoiselle, Madame de Montespan (whose so-called memoirs were written by Philippe Musoni years after Montespan's death), Duke of Saint-Simon, Voltaire and Cardinal Dubois (who is probably not the author of his own Memoirs).
Maria Theresa with Her son, the Dauphin, Louis of France, Pierre Mignard 1661
Madame de Montespan
Madame de Montespan wrote
I have already told how the envoys of the King of Arda, an African prince, gave to the Queen a nice little blackamoor, as a toy and pet.This Moor, aged about ten or twelve years, was only twenty-seven inches in height, and the King of Arda declared that, being quite unique, the boy would never grow to be taller than three feet.
The Queen instantly took a great fancy to this black creature. Sometimes he gambolled about and turned somersaults on her carpet like a kitten, or
frolicked about on the bureau, the sofa, and even on the Queen's lap.
As she passed from one room to another, he used to hold up her train, and
delighted to catch hold of it and so make the Queen stop short suddenly,
or else to cover his head and face with it, for mischief, to make the
courtiers laugh.
He was arrayed in regular African costume, wearing handsome bracelets, armlets, a necklace ablaze with jewels, and a splendid turban. Wishing
to show myself agreeable, I gave him a superb aigrette of rubies and
diamonds; I was always sorry afterwards that I did so.
The King could never put up with this little dwarf, albeit his features were comely enough. To begin with, he thought him too familiar, and
never even answered him when the dwarf dared to address him.
Following the fashion set by her Majesty, all the Court ladies wanted to
have little blackamoors to follow them about, set off their white
complexions, and hold up their cloaks or their trains. Thus it came that
Mignard, Le Bourdon, and other painters of the aristocracy, used to
introduce negro boys into all their large portraits. It was a mode, a
mania; but so absurd a fashion soon had to disappear after the mishap of
which I am about to tell.
The Queen being pregnant, public prayers were offered up for her according to custom, and her Majesty was forever saying: "My pregnancy
this time is different from preceding ones. I am a prey to nausea and
strange whims; I have never felt like this before. If, for propriety's
sake, I did not restrain myself, I should now dearly like to be turning
somersaults on the carpet, like little Osmin. He eats green fruit and
raw game; that is what I should like to do, too. I should like to--"
"Oh, madame, you frighten us!" exclaimed the King. "Don't let all those whimsies trouble you further, or you will give birth to some monstrosity, some freak of nature."
His Majesty was a true prophet. The Queen was
delivered of a fine little girl, black as ink from head to foot. They
did not tell her this at once, fearing a catastrophe, but persuaded her
to go to sleep, saying that the child had been taken away to be
christened.
The physicians met in one room, the bishops and chaplains in another. One
prelate was opposed to baptising the infant; another only agreed to this
upon certain conditions. The majority decided that it should be baptised
without the name of father or mother, and such suppression was
unanimously advocated.
The little thing, despite its swarthy hue, was most beautifully made; its
features bore none of those marks peculiar to people of colour.
It was sent away to the Gisors district to be suckled as a negro's
daughter, and the Gazette de France contained an announcement to the
effect that the royal infant had died, after having been baptised by the
chaplains.
The little African was sent away, as may well be imagined; and the Queen
admitted that, one day soon after she was pregnant, he had hidden himself
behind a piece of furniture and suddenly jumped out upon her to give her
a fright. In this he was but too successful.
The Court ladies no longer dared come near the Queen attended by their
little blackamoors. These, however, they kept for a while longer, as if
they were mere nick-hacks or ornaments; in Paris they were still to be
seen in public. But the ladies' husbands at last got wind of the tale,
when all the little negroes disappeared.
La Grande Mademoiselle
La Grande Mademoiselle was not present at the birth, but was informed of the situation shortly after, by Philippe, the King's brother. She wrote
Monsieur {the kings brother} told me ... that the baby girl, which she [the Queen] had given birth to, resembled a small Moor that Monsieur de Beaufort had brought, who was very pretty, the one who was always with the queen; that when it was remarked that her baby resembled [the Moor], he was removed; that the little girl was horrible; that she would not live; that I must take care not to say so to the queen, nor that [the baby] would die.
Saint Simon
Saint-Simon's account
People were astonished this year, that while the Princess of Savoy was at Fontainebleau, just before her marriage, she was taken several times by Madame de Maintenon to a little unknown convent at Moret, where there was nothing to amuse her, and no nuns who were known. Madame de Maintenon often went there, and Monseigneur with his children sometimes; the late Queen used to go also. This awakened much curiosity and gave rise to many reports.
It seems that in this convent there was a woman of colour, a Moorish woman, who had been placed there very young by Bontems, valet of the King. She received the utmost care and attention, but never was shown to anybody. When the late Queen or Madame de Maintenon went, they did not always see her, but always watched over her welfare. She was
treated with more consideration than people the most distinguished; and
herself made much of the care that was taken of her, and the mystery by
which she was surrounded. Although she lived regularly, it was easy to see she was not too contented with her position. Hearing Monseigneur hunt in the forest one day, she forgot herself so far as to exclaim, "My brother is hunting!"
It was pretended that she was a daughter of the King and Queen, but that she had been hidden away on account of her colour; and the report was spread that the Queen had had a miscarriage. Many people believed this story; but whether it was true or not has remained an enigma.
Madame de Montestpan
My readers remember the little negress who was born to the Queen in the
early days,--she whom no one wanted, who was dismissed, relegated,
disinherited, unacknowledged, deprived of her rank and name the very day
of her birth; and who, by a freak of destiny, enjoyed the finest health
in the world, and surmounted, without any precautions or care, all the
difficulties, perils, and ailments of infancy.
M. Bontems, first valet de chambre of the cabinets, served as her
guardian, or curator; even he acted only through the efforts and
movements of an intermediary. It was wished that this young Princess
should be ignorant of her birth, and in this I agree that, in the midst
of crying injustice, the King kept his natural humanity. This poor child
not being meant, and not being able, to appear at Court, it was better,
indeed, to keep her from all knowledge of her rights, in order to deprive
her, at one stroke, of the distress of her conformation, the hardship of
her repudiation, and the despair of captivity. The King destined her for
a convent when he saw her born, and M. Bontems promised that it should be so.
At the age of three, she was withdrawn from the hands of her nurse, and Madame Bontems put her to be weaned in her own part of the world.
Opportune,--[She was born on Sainte Opportune's Day.]--clothed and
nourished like the other children of the farmer, who was her new patron,
played with them in the barns or amongst the snow; she followed them into
the orchards and fields; she filled, like them, her little basket with
acorns that had been left after the crop was over, or ears of corn that
the gleaners had neglected, or withered branches and twigs left by the
wood-cutters for the poor. Her nude, or semi-nude, arms grew rough in
the burning sun, and more so still in the frosts. Her pretty feet, so
long as the fine season lasted, did not worry about being shod, and when
November arrived with its terrors, Opportune took her little heeled
sabots like the other country children. M. and Madame Bontems wrote
every six months to inquire if she were dead, and each time the answer
came that the little Moor was in wonderful health.
The pastor of the neighbouring hamlet felt pity for this poor child, who
was sometimes tormented by her companions on account of her colour. The
good cure even went so far as to declare, one day when there was a
sermon, that the Virgin Mary, if one was to believe respectable books,
was black from head to foot, which did not prevent her from being most
beautiful in the sight of God and of men.
This good cure taught the gentle little orphan to read and pray. He often
came to her farm to visit her, and probably he knew her birth; he was in
advanced age, and he died. Then Opportune was placed with the
Augustinian ladies of Meaux, where Bossuet charged himself with the task
of instructing her well in religion and of making her take the veil.
The lot of this young victim of pride and vain prejudices touched me in
spite of myself, and often I made a firm resolution to take her away from
her oppressors and adopt her in spite of everybody. The poor Queen,
forgetting our rivalry, had taken all my children into her affections.
Why should not I have shown a just recognition by protecting an innocent
little creature animated with her breath, life, and blood,--a child whom
she would have loved, I do not doubt, if she had been permitted to see
and recognise her? This idea grew so fixed in my, mind, that I resolved
to see Opportune and do her some good, if I were able.
The interest of my position had led me once to assure myself of the
neighbourhood of the King by certain little measures, not of curiosity
but of surveillance. I had put with M. Bontems a young man of
intelligence and devotion, who, without passing due limits, kept me
informed of many things which it is as well to know.
When I knew, without any doubt, the new abiding-place of Opportune, I
secretly sent to the Augustinians of Meaux the young and intelligent
sister of my woman of the bedchamber, who presented herself as an
aspirant for the novitiate. They were ignorant in the house of the
relations of Mademoiselle Albanier with her sister Leontine Osselin, so
that they wrote to each other, but by means of a cipher, and under seal,
addressing their missives to a relative.
Albanier lost no time in informing us that the little Opportune had begun
to give her her confidence, and that the nuns took it in very good part,
believing them both equally called to take the veil in their convent.
Opportune knew, though in a somewhat vague way, to what great personage
she owed her life, and it appeared that the good cure had informed her,
out of compassion, before he left this world. Albanier wrote to
Leontine:
"Tell Madame la Marquise that Opportune is full of wit; she resembles M.
le Duc du Maine as though she were his twin; her carriage is exactly that
of the King; her body is built to perfection, and were it not for her
colour, the black of which diminishes day by day, she would be one of the
loveliest persons in France; she is sad and melancholy by temperament,
but as I have succeeded in attracting her confidence, and diverting her
as much as one can do in a purgatory like this, we dance sometimes in
secret, and then you would think you saw Mademoiselle de Nantes dance and
pirouette.
"When any one pronounces the name of the King, she trembles. She asked
me to-day whether I had seen the King, if he were handsome, if he were
courteous and affable. It seemed to me as though she was already
revolving some great project in her brain, and if I am not mistaken, she
has quite decided to scale the fruit-trees against our garden wall and
escape across country.
"M. Bossuet, in his quality of Bishop of Meaux, has the right of entry
into this house; he has come here three times since my arrival; he has
given me each time a little tap on my check in token of goodwill, and
such as one gets at confirmation; he told me that he longs to see me take
the veil of the Ursulines, as well as my little scholar; it is by that
name he likes to call her.
"Opportune answers him with a stately air which would astound you; she
only calls him monsieur, and when told that she has made an error, and
that she should say monseigneur, she replies with great seriousness, 'I
had forgotten it.'"
Mademoiselle Albanier, out of kindness to me, passed nearly two years in
this house, which she always called her purgatory, but the endeavours of
the superior and of M. Bossuet becoming daily more pressing, and her
health, which had suffered, being unable to support the seclusion longer,
she made up her mind to retire.
Her departure was a terrible blow to the daughter of the Queen. This
young person, who was by nature affectionate, almost died of grief at the
separation. We learnt that, after having been ill and then ailing for
several weeks, she found the means of escaping from the convent, and of
taking refuge with some lordly chatelaine. M. de Meaux had her pursued,
but as she threatened to kill herself if she were taken back to the Abbey
of Notre Dame, the prelate wrote to M. Bontems, that is to say, to the
real father, and poor Opportune was taken to Moret, a convent of
Benedictines, in the forest of Fontainebleau. There they took the course
of lavishing care, and kindness, and attentions on her. But as her
destiny, written in her cradle, was an irrevocable sentence, she was
finally made to take the veil, which suited her admirably, and which she
wears with an infinite despair.
I disguised myself one day as a lady suitor who sought a lodging in the
house. I established myself there for a week, under the name of the
Comtesse de Clagny, and I saw, with my own eyes, a King's daughter
reduced to singing matins. Her air of nobility and dignity struck me
with admiration and moved me to tears. I thought of her four sisters,
dead at such an early age, and deplored the cruelty of Fate, which had
spared her in her childhood to kill her slowly and by degrees.
I would have accosted her in the gardens, and insinuated myself into her
confidence, but the danger of these interviews, both for her and me,
restrained what had been an ill-judged kindness. We should both have
gone too far, and the monarch would have been able to think that I was
opposing him out of revenge, and to give him pain.
This consideration came and crushed all my projects of compassion and
kindness. There are situations in life where we are condemned to see
evil done in all liberty, without being able to call for succour or
complain.
Voltaire age 24
Voltaire
It was suspected, with much likelihood, that a nun of the abbey of Moret was his [the King's] daughter. She was extremely tanned [basanée: and resembled him. The king gave her twenty thousand ecus for a dowry, placing her in this convent. The opinion that she had of her birth made her overly-proud, about which her superiors complained. Madame de Maintenon, on a trip from Fontainebleau, went to the convent of Motet, and wanting to inspire more modesty with this nun, she did what she could to debunk the idea which nourished her pride. "Madame," the nun told her, "the trouble which a lady of your station takes to purposely come here in order to tell me that I am not a daughter of the king, persuades me that I am." The convent of Moret still remembers this anecdote.
After reviewing the facts in this 300 plus year old case and connecting the dots it is my personal opinion that Louise Marie-Thérèse also known as The Black Nun of Moret was the child of French Queen Maria Theresa of Spain and her black Page Nabo. There are aspects of this case that people have looked over. Here is some background info
Louis was faithful to his wife for the first year of their marriage. He enjoyed the legitimate passion that his wife felt for him. However, the couple would later have difficulty in matching their personalities. While all Paris glorified the good looks of the King, Marie-Thérèse continued to put on weight with her delight in hot chocolate and to withdraw into her circle of dwarfs. It seemed Marie-Thérèse was always the last to know that her husband had found a new mistress. Marie-Thérèse continued to spend much of her free time playing cards and gambling, as she had no interest in politics or literature. Consequently, she was viewed as not fully playing the part of Queen designated to her by her marriage. As time passed, Marie-Thérèse grew more docile and the King continued and increased his romantic adventures. As time went on the King left her to her own devices, with her hot chocolate, Spanish maids and collection of dwarfs.
At the time Marie-Thérèse gave birth to the child Marie-Anne de France it was know that the child was born one month prematurely or was she. The child was thought to be born one month prematurely because everything at Versailles was documented even the conjugal duties of the king and queen. At the time in there marriage there were very few. Once it was know that the queen was pregnant it would have been calculated to the Kings last conjugal visit. But what if someone got there a month before? The adultery thesis has been questioned for century's because the Queen was a very pious woman. We know in our day in time that some of the biggest pious people have been caught in scandal. It was Documented that Nabo was seen to be under the Queens dress a lot. Maybe something happen under there that she did not know about that resulted in a child nine months latter.
After this black child was born Marie-Thérèse favorite Nabo was sent for by the king and he disappeared never to be seen again. Marie-Anne de France was said to have died a little over a month latter on 26 December 1664. Or did she? I think it was a cover up over a embarrassing problem. Here is where the story of Louise Marie-Thérèse comes in the child's name is changed from Marie-Anne de France to Louise Marie-Thérèse. Let's look at the changed name the child's new name incorporates both King's and Queens name. The first name of Louise the female version of Louis The Sun's kings name and Marie-Thérèse after the Queen. The Black Nun of Moret was born on the same date as the Queen' child Marie-Anne de France November 16 1664.
Saint-Simon mentions that Louise Marie-Thérèse convent was visited sometimes by the Queen and later by Madame de Maintenon, he also mentioned that they didn't always see her but always watch over her welfare. The nun however seemed convinced of her Royal birth, and it is told by Saint-Simon that she once greeted the Dauphin as "my brother". A letter sent on June 13, 1685, by the Secretary of the House of King to Mister De Bezons, general agent of the clergy, and the pension's patent of 300 pounds granted by King Louis XIV to the nun Louise Marie-Thérèse on October 15, 1695, "to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come" confirm this opinion.
Father Claude Du Molinet (1620–1687), librarian of Sainte Geneviève abbey seams to believe that the Nun was the child of a Queen. He commissioned a series of twenty-two pastel portraits of the Kings of France, from Louis IX to Louis XIV, made between 1681 to 1683 and included in this series is a portrait of a black Nun alluding to her Royal birth. A folder at St. Genevieve is said to bear the title, "Documents Concerning The Princess Louise Marie-Therese, Daughter of Louis XIV and Marie-Therese." The folder is empty.
After the Queen's death Why would The Sun King give a anonymous black French nun a pension of 300 pounds a year that he upped to 350 pounds a year {a lot of money for the time} for the rest of her life. I believe he was looking out for her just as his wife had looked over her. It is still debated and is unconfirmed that The Black Nun of Moret was French Queen Marie-Thérèse's child but connecting the dots and the historical documents a lot of people believe The Black Nun of Moret was the child of French Queen Marie-Thérèse.
A letter sent on June 13, 1685, by the Secretary of the House of King to Mister De Bezons, general agent of the clergy, and the pension's patent of 300 pounds granted by King Louis XIV to the nun Louise Marie-Thérèse on October 15, 1695, "to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come"
A letter sent on June 13, 1685, by the Secretary of the House of King to Mister De Bezons, general agent of the clergy, and the pension's patent of 300 pounds granted by King Louis XIV to the nun Louise Marie-Thérèse on October 15, 1695, "to be paid to her all her life in this convent or everywhere she could be, by the guards of the Royal treasure present and to come"
Why I love living in the Deep South
Camellias in a period Empire Old Paris porcelain vase.
There is always something blooming in the south. All winter long I have had paperwhite narcissus and different types of camellias from my garden to fill Old Paris porcelain vases.
Camellias in a vintage silver mint julep cup
Camellias & paperwhite narcissus in a Rococo Revival Old Paris porcelain vase on a Louis XVI style bracket
Friday, February 25, 2011
Mobile's Mardi Gras kicks off with Conde Cavaliers parade
Last Friday night Mobile's Mardi Gras was kick off with the first parade by the Conde Cavaliers. It was a exciting night as the little kid in me comes out during Mardi Gras. My earliest memories are of going to parades as a child here in Mobile, Alabama. Enjoy some of the video's I tuck last Friday of the first parade. Seeing a video and being here are two different things. I have been so busy with Mardi Gras and going to parades every night and this will go on until the 8th of next month! Enjoy the video's.
Amnon and Tamar 1649-1650 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino
Amnon and Tamar 1649-1650 Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, called Guercino
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Benjamin West Thetis Bringing the Armor to Achilles 1804
Benjamin West Thetis Bringing the Armor to Achilles 1804
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Genius of the Arts (1789) by GAGNERAUX Bénigne
The Genius of the Arts (1789) by GAGNERAUX Bénigne
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Anatomical study of a man.
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres - Anatomical study of a man.
The Mobile Carnival Museum Mobile Alabama part 3
A Mobile Mardi Gras King's crown
This is part 3 the last of a three part series exploring The Mobile Carnival Museum a wonderful museum located in a Historic Mansion in Mobile, Alabama . The staff are warm and friendly. You can take all of the photo's you like in the Museum. I highly recommend this museum if you are visiting Mobile, Alabama.
The Museum is located in the historic Bernstein-Bush mansion built in 1872 for Henry Bernstein, a boot and shoe dealer. The mansion was designed by architect James H. Hutchisson in the mixed style of Italianate and Greek Revival styles. The interiors of this house is particularly fine detail of beautifully cast plaster details and Mid 19th century Gasoliers original from fine mansions torn down on the next block in the 1960's. The gasoliers were moved to this house. The home is registered as a historic building. The accumulation of royal robes, crowns and scepters is beautifully displayed throughout the museum.
The terms "Mardi Gras" (pronounced /ˈmɑrdiɡrɑː/), "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season",in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday" (in ethnic English tradition, Shrove Tuesday), referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season, which started on Ash Wednesday.
While not observed nationally throughout the United States, a number of traditionally ethnic French cities and regions in the country have notable celebrations. Mardi Gras arrived in North America as a French Catholic tradition
Bienville found the settlement of Mobile, Alabama in 1702 as the first capital of French Louisiana. In 1703 French settlers in Mobile began the Mardi Gras celebration tradition. Mobile is known for having the oldest organized carnival celebrations in the United States, dating to the 18th century of its early colonial period. It was also host to the first formally organized Carnival mystic society or "krewe" in the United States, dating to 1830.
Mobile Mardi Gras King and Queen
trains and lavish costumes of the Mardi Gras royalty
A Mobile Mardi Gras King's & Queens
trains and lavish costumes of the Mardi Gras royalty
Throughout his career, Lagman performed for hundreds of parties, schools, organizations and civic events including America's Junior Miss. He wrote special arrangements for many Carnival societies' tableau and his orchestra was always in demand during Mardi Gras for fifty years. He is an important part of Mobile's musical history playing Ragtime in the twenties and Big Band music from the thirties through the seventies. One of Bill's original trumpets is on display at the Mobile Carnival Museum and the trumpet given to him by The Tonight Show band leader Doc Severinsen, is on display at the Museum of Mobile.
He was awarded the M.O. Beale Scroll of Merit in 1968 for his “artistic contribution to [Mobile's] social and civic life.” Lagman was one of the founders of the Mobile Jazz Festival. He was named “Mr. Music” by the Mobile Jazz Festival in 1968 , and in 2002 the Tricentennial Jazz Festival was dedicated to his memory.
He wrote and arranged music for his bands to perform. Lagman wrote the words and music to “Alpha Delta Kappa Sweetheart” and dedicated it to his wife, Claire. The song entitled “Mobile's Azalea Trail” promoted the city and its beauty. It was performed by Rudy Vallee on his Standard Brands radio program. Lagman was the director of the choir at St. Mary's Church. He left the score of “Holy, Holy, Holy” which he was composing for the Easter liturgy on his piano when he died on January 10, 1976.
The Excelsior Band has a very rich history. It was founded by John A. Pope to celebrate the birth of his son, John C. Pope in Mobile, AL on November 23, 1883.
The Excelsior Band has marched the streets of downtown Mobile for over 100 years in various Mardi Gras parades. Additionally, The band, which plays Dixieland and conventional jazz, is available for weddings, receptions, jazz funerals, conventions, and parades.
The band performs regularly along the Gulf Coast and is recognized for providing the unique sounds associated with the carnival season in Mobile, AL, the birthplace of Mardi Gras in the United States.
The Excelsior Band is a ten piece marching brass band that consists of three trumpets, three saxophones, one trombone, a tuba, bass drum and snare drum. The group also performs as a quintet, as requested for smaller events, e.g. birthday parties, wedding receptions, conventions. The Members of the Excelsior Band come from diverse occupational background and all are highly touted in the Mobile area for their many years of musical contributions throughout the city.
The musical hodge-podge that makes up the Excelsior medley floats in the swing of Carnival cheer with such favorites as “Margie”, “Hello Dolly”, “St. Louis Blues”, “South Rampart Street Parade”, and, of course, “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
Black Mardi Gras King
trains and lavish costumes of the Mardi Gras royalty
trains and lavish costumes of the Mardi Gras royalty
One of the original Renaissance Revival marble mantels in the Bernstein-Bush mansion built in 1872
One of the original Renaissance Revival marble mantels in the Bernstein-Bush mansion built in 1872
Hand carved table 1849 carved with the Strikers goats and dauphin base is one of the oldist Mardi Gras relics around
The Strikers Independent Society hand carved table 1849. The Strikers Independent Society (S. I. S.) is a mystic society founded in 1843 [1] in Mobile, Alabama (during Mobile's first American period) and participated in Carnival during New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrations. It is the oldest remaining mystic society in America but no longer hosts an annual parade.
The Strikers Independent Society was formed initially by young men in Mobile who had been refused membership to the older Cowbellion de Rakin Society (which had been formed in year 1830 by "more sedate and astute men of the city"). In the beginning, it was designated as a bachelor-only society, and if a member married, then they were out of the society. The Strikers, like the Cowbellions, paraded only on New Year's Eve and held their ball on New Year's Day.
Hand carved table 1849 carved with the Strikers goats and dauphin base is one of the oldist Mardi Gras relics around
Hand carved table circa 1849 the table top carved with work symbols of the members of the Strikers
Hand carved table 1849 carved with the Strikers goats and dauphin base is one of the oldist Mardi Gras relics around
A case of Mobile Mardi Gras Silver
Everywhere visitors turn, they see reminders of the royal lineage, the litany of familiar names and multiple generations of blueblood Mobilians who passed along birthrights to not only symbolic rule, but also more de facto versions. It brings to mind an old joke about the "problem with Mobile" being that "half the people think the King and Queen of Mardi Gras are real and the other half wish they were." – Kevin Lee, Lagniappe, 7/5/2006
Joe Cain as Slackabamarinico & one of his Merry Widows
Joe Cain (1832-1904) is regarded as the founder of Mobile's modern-day Mardi Gras celebration. In 1866, Cain paraded through downtown Mobile dressed as an Indian chief, an act that helped rejuvenate the city's carnival tradition after the Civil War. Today, revelers commemorate Cain's role in reviving the celebration with a large public parade first held in the early 1960s.
Joseph Stillwell Cain was born in Mobile, Mobile County, on October 10, 1832. His parents had moved to Mobile from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1825. From an early age, Cain was enamored of the various social clubs and societies in the city. At 13, he was a charter member of the Tea Drinkers Society (TDS), a social club that paraded on New Year's Eve with other such social clubs, known as mystic societies. Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Mardi Gras was celebrated in conjunction with festivities to ring in the New Year.
The beginning of the Civil War ended these celebrations as a blockade strangled off trade in Mobile. In April 1865, Union troops took control of the city. Like many young Alabamians, Cain fought in the war, serving as a private in the Confederate Army until 1864. After his service ended, he lived briefly in New Orleans, where he participated in that city's Mardi Gras festivities.
In 1866, Cain returned to Mobile and decided to revive the spirit of Mobile's New Year's Eve festivities during the more traditional pre-Lenten period observed in New Orleans. In 1866, Cain and six original members of TDS rode through Mobile's streets in a decorated charcoal The members of the troupe dressed in exaggerated Indian attire, and Cain led the impromptu parade dressed as a fictional Chickasaw chieftain named Slackabamarinico. Along their route, Cain exuberantly declared an end to Mobile's suffering and signaled the return of the city's parading activities, to the delight of local residents. His actions also succeeded in moving Mobile's celebration to the traditional Fat Tuesday. In 1867, Cain led a parade of 16 former Confederate soldiers who called themselves the Lost Cause Minstrels. Because of this troupe, the mythology of the Lost Cause would become a central part of Mobile's Mardi Gras festivities for many years thereafter. Cain was one of the founding members of the Order of Myths, and the society's emblem, Folly chasing Death around a broken column, is seen by many as another invocation of the mythology of the Lost Cause.
Cain worked in various jobs in Mobile throughout his life. Soon after the war, he returned to his position as a cotton broker. But the post-war cotton market was never as prosperous as it was during the antebellum period, and Cain, like many others, soon moved on to other professions. He served as a volunteer fireman and briefly worked in the Mobile coroner's office. During his later years, Cain worked as a clerk at Mobile's Southern Market, a large produce and meat market located on the ground floor of the stately City Hall, a building that now houses the Museum of Mobile. Later in his life, he and his wife moved to Bayou la Batre to live with his son. Cain's resurrection of Mobile's season of revelry was widely admired, and he remained a favorite at local festivities for the rest of his life. Cain died on April 17, 1904, and was buried in Oddfellow's Cemetery, outside Bayou La Batre.
Joe Cain in 1866
Mobile native Joe Cain is credited with reviving the city's Mardi Gras tradition. In 1865, soon after the end of the Civil War, he and a group of friends led a parade through the city's downtown. He is honored by Mardi Gras revelers every year in a ceremony held at his grave in the historic Church Street Graveyard.
A beautiful Mobile Mardi Gras Ball dress from the year I was born
A beautiful Mobile Mardi Gras Ball dress from the year I was born
A beautiful Mobile Mardi Gras Ball dress
A Mobile Mardi Costume
A Mobile Mardi Costume
A Mobile Mardi Costume
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