Gallery
Photos from events, contest for the best costume, videos from master classes.
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The Backstreet Cultural Museum officially opened its doors in 1999. However, its origins can be traced back three decades to when Sylvester Francis paraded with the Gentlemen of Leisure Social Aid & Pleasure Club. A man photographing the parade wanted Francis to pay $35.00 for his own photograph. The museum provides annual exhibitions at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and the Essence Festival. Backstreet’s collections were featured in the Ogden Museum of Southern Art’s exhibition, “Mardi Gras Indians, Jazz Funerals and Second-Line Parades: Works from the Backstreet Cultural Museum.” The Backstreet Cultural Museum is proud to host an extensive collection of Mardi Gras Indian regalia, including suits of Big Chiefs, Queens, Flag Boys, Wild Men, and more. The Mardi Gras Indians are one of New Orleans’ greatest cultural treasures. Every year, the tribes take to the streets, bringing generations of history right along with them. The Backstreet Museum, once the home of the Blandin Funeral Home, houses the city’s largest collection of Mardi Gras Indian suits. These brilliantly colored and elaborately designed suits are hand made by local artisans. Each suit boasts thousands of beads, shells, rhinestones, sequins and feathers and takes a year to make. The museum’s collection also includes photos and video footage of Mardi Gras Indians, jazz funerals and second lines. If you want to see Mardi Gras Indians on the march, the fantastically evocative costumes of the North Side Skull & Bones Gang, and the dazzling performances of the Baby Dolls, head to the Backstreet Cultural Museum early on Rebecca Todd Mardi Gras Museum- The Presbytere- Louisiana State Museum The magic and spectacle that is Mardi Gras happens every Carnival season starting Twelfth Night, Jan. 6, and culminating on Fat Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday on the Advent calendar. Big Chief Demond Melancon wears his Red Cloud suit amongst other members of Mardi Gras Indian tribes [+] during Mardi Gras 2014. In February 2021, the usual bustle of New Orleans’ Canal The museum contains many priceless artifacts of African-American culture in New Orleans, including elaborate, brightly colored suits worn by Mardi Gras Indians in previous years, and rare photos of Mardi Gras Indian "gangs" from the 1940s. The museum is also a clearing house for information about Mardi Gras Indian and second-line events and Was amazing to get such a close up view of the incredible Mardi Gras Indian costumes, and to read firsthand about the people and organizations who keep the special culture of New Orleans alive. I especially loved chatting with the museum staff, who shared great stories and gave us a few tips on where else to check out in the neighborhood. is a cultural museum based on Ronald W. Lewis' participation in the culture of Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs and Skull & Bone Gangs. Our mission: to preserve and share this culture with the world, passing on our knowledge and traditions to the next generation. That summer, the New Orleans Museum of Art stepped up with the exhibition He’s the Prettiest: A Tribute to Big Chief Allison “Tootie” Montana’s Fifty Years of Mardi Gras Indian Suiting. It was the first time Mardi Gras Indian regalia had ever been displayed at the prestigious museum. At the museum, you will catch the Mardi Gras Indians in their new suits, the North Side Skull and Bone gang, Baby Dolls, musicians, culture bearers, and just about anyone else. Our annual Mardi Gras Day Open House begins at 8 a.m. with “Breakfast with the Bone Gang.” The Mardi Gras Museum is a Contemporary celebration of the vast array of grassroots traditions of Mardi Gras. Come see the pageantry, fun, and creativity that makes the Mardi Gras experience so rich. Join us in our costume closet, make masks and experience the creativity and craftsmanship that goes into the creation of these fantastic costumes! The Mardi Gras Museum is a Contemporary celebration with it’s finger on the pulse of the vast array of grassroots traditions of Mardi Gras revelers, Walking Clubs, Mardi Gras Indians, Cajun Mardi Gras, Buskers and Street Performers, Kings and Queens,and pageant masquerade balls, as well as the creativity and craftsmanship that goes into the The Donald Harrison, Sr. Museum and Cultural Center (DHSMCC) serves to preserve and positively perpetuate the authentic indigenous culture of all individuals who masquerade as Mardi Gras Indians through mutually beneficial collaborations among the tradition bearers, academic institutions, individuals, organizations, and communities to foster On January 6, 2022, the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Making Mardi Gras exhibition rambles its way into the museum's French Quarter galleries. This showstopping display invites visitors into the sprawling dens, late-night sewing sessions, and sweaty dance rehearsals where “The Greatest Free Show on Earth” is created and re-created each year among the city’s diverse communities. Sylvester Francis opened the museum in 1999, focusing on Mardi Gras Indians (also known as Black Masking Indians), Baby Dolls, the Mardi Gras skull and bone tradition, second lines, social aid and pleasure clubs and jazz funerals. He grew up in the adjoining Seventh Ward and became a documentarian almost by accident. The shouting and the rattling of tambourines may be absent in 2021, but the spirit of New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indians persists. Spirit is the key to the new, not-to-be-missed exhibit “Mystery in A Mardi Gras Indian at a New Orleans jazz festival in 2011 Tulane Public Relations via Wikimedia But the Louisiana State Museum claims the Mardi Gras tradition stretches back even The Backstreet Museum’s founder, Sylvester Francis, has spent much of his lifetime documenting Mardi Gras Indian tribes. The Backstreet Cultural Museum is located at 1116 St. Claude Avenue and is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission is $5 per person.
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Photos from events, contest for the best costume, videos from master classes.
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