--- title: Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party description: In 1938, LIFE sent photographer William Vandivert to New Orleans to cover the debauchery, whimsy and unalloyed fun of Mardi Gras. canonical: https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-02-20T19:48:21.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:56.202Z og:title: Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party og:description: In 1938, LIFE sent photographer William Vandivert to New Orleans to cover the debauchery, whimsy and unalloyed fun of Mardi Gras og:url: https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta70be31281dfbb05/69877cf5524fc0d161dec3c6/150130-mardi-gras-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Mardi Gras 1938 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party twitter:description: In 1938, LIFE sent photographer William Vandivert to New Orleans to cover the debauchery, whimsy and unalloyed fun of Mardi Gras twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta70be31281dfbb05/69877cf5524fc0d161dec3c6/150130-mardi-gras-02.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 20, 2012 7:48 PM UTC  Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938. Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938.William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Feb 20, 2012 7:48 PM UTC Early on in its decades-long run as a weekly magazine, LIFE turned its eye toward always-enticing, ever-vivid New Orleans and that great city’s signature annual event: [Mardi Gras](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mardi%5FGras). In February, 1938, editors sent photographer William Vandivert to the Big Easy to chronicle the carnival, and to show LIFE’s readers how one American city — in so many ways a Caribbean, as opposed to a purely Southern, town — maintained a centuries-old tradition of refined debauchery and unalloyed _fun_ in the midst of the Great Depression. The story that ran in the March 14, 1938, issue of LIFE, alongside some of Vandivert’s photographs, was interesting enough, in its own way. Titled “LIFE goes to America’s Most Famous Party,” the five-page feature focused almost exclusively on the aristocratic Comus Ball, and the pomp and ceremony that attends the crowning of the ball’s king and queen. In fact, in 1938, LIFE was _invited_ to the Comus Ball — “to photograph it,” the magazine gently boasted to its readers, “for the press for the first and only time in its 81 years.” But Bill Vandivert was in New Orleans for more than a few days and nights in the late winter of 1938, and he made hundreds of photographs — far more interesting photographs, it turns out, than those that ran in the magazine — on the crowded, chaotic streets and boulevards of that singular town. Here, in tribute to the undying spirit of the Crescent City, and to celebrate the ancient festival of carnival (from Latin, _carne vale_, or “farewell to meat”) that traditionally marks the beginning of the Christian observance of Lent, LIFE.com offers a gallery of those previously unpublished Vandivert photos: pictures of men, women and children happily caught up in the whirlwind of Mardi Gras, in a vanished New Orleans that feels at once ghostly and somehow inimitably, intensely _alive_. _Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter at_ [_@LizabethRonk_](https://twitter.com/LizabethRonk)_._  Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras decorations, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras revelers, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras float, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras revelers, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras revelers, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras costumes, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras mask, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras in New Orleans, 1938\. (Some predominately African American "krewes" -- especially the Zulu -- are known, even today, for wearing blackface during the parade.) William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras parade participant, 1938\. (Some predominately African American "krewes" -- especially the Zulu -- are known, even today, for wearing blackface during the parade.) William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938\. (Some predominately African American "krewes" -- especially the Zulu -- are known, even today, for wearing blackface during the parade.) William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras crowd, New Orleans, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras souvenir sign, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Mardi Gras revelers in costume, 1938. William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/"},"headline":"Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party","datePublished":"2012-02-20T19:48:21.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:05:56.202Z","description":"In 1938, LIFE sent photographer William Vandivert to New Orleans to cover the debauchery, whimsy and unalloyed fun of Mardi Gras.","url":"https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/","keywords":["photography","LIFE Magazine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta70be31281dfbb05/69877cf5524fc0d161dec3c6/150130-mardi-gras-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ben Cosgrove","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta70be31281dfbb05/69877cf5524fc0d161dec3c6/150130-mardi-gras-02.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Mardi Gras 1938","caption":"Mardi Gras, New Orleans, 1938.","creditText":"William Vandivert—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/photography/","name":"photography"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3690328/mardi-gras-rare-vintage-photos-from-americas-most-famous-party/","name":"Mardi Gras: Rare Vintage Photos From America's Most Famous Party"}}]}] ```