Until the 1850s, the celebration of Mardi Gras in New Orleans was limited to private balls and street revelry consisting of maskers on foot, on horseback and in carriages. Though immensely popular, early Carnivals were so fraught with violence that certain members of the press called for an end to the annual festivities.
With a mind to reinvent the celebration they so loved, 19 civic-minded locals joined on Jan. 10, 1857, to form the Mistick Krewe of Comus, Carnival’s first secret society.