Thematic Series
The Mobile Carnival Museum hosts a series of exhibits that explores various traditions, people, events, and expression that make Carnival in Mobile so very special. This programmatic series began in 2018. Exhibits occupy the main reception room of the Bernstein-Bush House of the Museum. The goal of the series is to highlight the many ties between the Port City and its greatest living tradition of Mardi Gras. Noted Carnival figures & personalities, “spirits”, couture, food, silver, children, and numerous topics have been explored.
Current Thematic Exhibit...
Mobile Carnival Museum: Exhibit XVIII
An Artist and a Gentleman
A Celebration of the Carnival Art and Legacy of Edward B. Ladd, Sr.
This exhibit showcases the vision, breadth, and whimsy of a magical man and gifted designer. Featuring both design studies and completed works, An Artist and a Gentleman embraces concept imagery and realized works for both mystic societies and carnival associations. These related, yet distinct, Carnival institutions are the heart of Mardi Gras in Mobile. Edward Ladd’s Carnival designs for both types of institutions comprise the bulk of his repertoire.
Though this exhibit focuses on Ladd as Carnival designer, it should be noted that he was the second and long-time curator of the Mobile Carnival Museum. Prior to this role, he designed a float for Mobile in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Edward Ladd’s impact as a curator and his many non-Carnival design contributions are just two examples of how this remarkable Mobilian served his community at home and far from it.
Mobile Carnival Museum — Exhibit XVI
Where the “Boom, Boom” Began and Thrives
The Origins and Spread of Carnival in Alabama
Where the “Boom, Boom” Began and Thrives: The Origins and Spread of Carnival in Alabama is the sixteenth exhibit in the Mobile Carnival Museum’s thematic series. Previous exhibits include Carnival and silver, jewelry, couture, cuisine, hospitality, and war, as well as exhibits on a number of notable Carnival artists and historical figures.
Upcoming exhibits include An Artist and a Gentleman: Carnival through the Life and Designs of Edward Ladd, Floats and Galleries: Carnival and Architecture, and A Designing Woman: Catherine Cook Haas, Mobile’s First Great Woman Float Designer, and other highly anticipated topics. Alternating with these exhibits on thematic subjects and historical figures is a second sequence of exhibits celebrating active Carnival artists. To date, this newest series has showcased Colleen Terrell Comer. The artists series will soon feature exhibits on Ron Barrett, Bradford Fuller & Lisa Warren, Sarah Haas Otts, and many others.
Mobile, Alabama, is one of the oldest cities in the United States of America. Since its founding in the early years of the 18th century, Mobile has experienced multiple boom times. During these periods of cultural and economic efflorescence, residents and visitors alike realized the uniqueness of place, being, and spirit that have come to typify the Port City. Chroniclers and observers articulated the distinctiveness of Mobile through the employ of evocative monikers. In the 1850s, the Port City was referred to as the “Cotton City” and the “Paris of the South.” By the turn of the 19th century, Mobile was likened to a “Southern Buenos Aires.” A little over sixty years later, in 1968, it was described as “Alabama’s City in Motion.”
Self-styled, and increasingly known as the “Mother of Mystics,” Mobile, Alabama, is the birthplace of modern American Carnival. More than any other facet of Port City life, it is Carnival that makes Mobile so incredibly special!
Carnival, with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) as its height, is Mobile’s greatest living tradition. Past, present, and future are all intertwined in the ethos, ideals, and practicalities behind what is an art form, an economic engine, a good time, and a family affair.
Bon Temps via the Brush of Colleen Comer
October 2024 – April 2025
As part of the Carnival Museum’s grand reopening, the Museum is proud to showcase the art of Colleen Terrell Comer. A Mobile native, Comer is a graduate of Auburn University and Columbia University. Her work is exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Comer has many connections to Mobile’s greatest living tradition. As is the case with most locals, she grew up experiencing the many facets that make up Mardi Gras in Mobile. As an adult, she became a member of mystic societies. It is through her art and career that Comer has contributed to Carnival, and in multiple capacities. For a number of years, she designed floats and costumes for the Maids of Mirth, one of Mobile’s two oldest women’s parading societies. She has painted special commissions from mystic societies of Carnival subjects, including an iconic emblem painting for the Order of Myths. Most of the works featured in this work were created as part of new series focused on Carnival in Mobile. These paintings and sculptures are shown for the first time through this exhibit.
Bon Temps or Good Times is inspired by a book of the same name. Published in 2017, the publication features the essays of Eleanor Inge Baker and photographs by Megan and Jeff Haller. Colleen Comer, who is friends of all three collaborators of Bon Temps, executed the paintings comprising this exhibit based on the Hallers’ photographs. The exhibit features pertinent pages from the 2017 book and prints from the photographs from the same paired with Comer’s work. The book and the paintings examine the royal or court and the street or parades sides of Carnival in Mobile. Comer’s nuanced, and festive look, at multiple facets of Mobile’s greatest living tradition is art inspired by art! Additionally, Bon Temps via the Brush of Colleen T. Comer represents the first time the Mobile Carnival Museum has displayed a complete show of an active artist’s work.
Carnival through the Eyes of Child: The Youthful Experience of Mardi Gras in Mobile
November 2023 – April 2024
Carnival, with Mardi Gras at its height, engages the hearts and minds of Mobilians of all ages. Carnival Through the Eyes of a Child celebrated many of the ways in which Mobile’s smallest residents make the biggest of impacts during the Port City’s most beloved time of year. The show examined fifteen traditions, organizations, roles, and activities through which kiddos partake in and contribute to the Port City’s most important annual celebration.
Current Thematic Exhibit...
Mobile Carnival Museum: Exhibit XVIII
An Artist and a Gentleman
A Celebration of the Carnival Art and Legacy of Edward B. Ladd, Sr.
This exhibit showcases the vision, breadth, and whimsy of a magical man and gifted designer. Featuring both design studies and completed works, An Artist and a Gentleman embraces concept imagery and realized works for both mystic societies and carnival associations. These related, yet distinct, Carnival institutions are the heart of Mardi Gras in Mobile. Edward Ladd’s Carnival designs for both types of institutions comprise the bulk of his repertoire.
Though this exhibit focuses on Ladd as Carnival designer, it should be noted that he was the second and long-time curator of the Mobile Carnival Museum. Prior to this role, he designed a float for Mobile in the Tournament of Roses Parade. Edward Ladd’s impact as a curator and his many non-Carnival design contributions are just two examples of how this remarkable Mobilian served his community at home and far from it.
Setting the Sideboard and Emptying the Vault Carnival and Silver
April 2023 – November 2023
Setting the Sideboard and Emptying the Vaults was the first celebration of the decorative arts of Carnival. The exhibit was also the first exhibit on Mobile-attuned silver in over three decades. Over three hundred pieces of silver were displayed as part of the show. The fourteen installations comprising the exhibit embraced topics as distinct as association, purpose, gender, object, and much else.
Of Men and Myths: Joseph Stillwell Cain and Julian Lee Rayford
November 2022 – March 2023
Joseph Stillwell Cain is the most famous person(a) in Mobile Carnival history. Of Men and Myths examined Joe Cain’s life, resurrection, and constant reinvention. This multimedia and immersive show dove into the man and man behind that ultimate of Mardi Gras mystiques. While Joe Cain was a focus of the show, Julian Lee Rayford, the man behind his revival and reinvention, was given renewed and focused attention. Of Men and Myths looks how Rayford – a noted sculptor, painter, novelist, folklorist, and poet – jettisoned Cain from relative obscurity into cult status.
From Chicken on a Stick to Fancy Fare: Carnival and Cuisine
November 2021 – April 2022
Carnival and Cuisine was – literally and figuratively – a feast for the senses! Celebrating Mobile’s rich culinary past from prehistory to the present day through the lens of Mardi Gras, Carnival, and Cuisine the show highlighted a selection of foodie-informed events, traditions, and spaces that define Mobile’s greatest living tradition. Recurring subjects include, but were not limited to nature’s bounty or farm/Delta/Gulf to table, the role of imported ingredients, ethnicity in local foodways, family and food, the business of dining, and “sauced” or alcohol in cooking.
Bringing the Rocks out of the Bank Box: Carnival and Jewelry
October 2020 – March 2021
Carnival and Bling was the first exhibit to focus exclusively on Mardi Gras jewelry. The show organized the rocks within the Mardi Gras jewelry box into five categories: royal regalia; favors; leading lady jewelry; pins; and gifts to queens. Each one of the aforementioned classifications is unique and has stories to tell. Within this organizational structure, the exhibit examined a cross sections of themes, including the creative process behind the creation of one-of-a-kind creations, the symbolism of designs, the sources of inspiration, the importance of tradition, and much more. Special emphasis was given to the creations of Dynasty Collections, a Mobile firm renowned nationwide for its Carnival regalia.
Right off the Royal Runway: Carnival and Couture
June – September 2020
Carnival and Couture employed the artistic medium of fashion to convey unique aspects of Mobile’s Carnival culture and style. A selection of over fifty ensembles dating from the 1920s to 2020 were orchestrated in such a way as to impart impulses and looks that are at once local, national, and international in their reach. Themes informing the show included: the creative process (who designed what), style (what is it), function (the event), and the spirit of the times (what epoch). Carnival and Couture explored how the design, creation, and donning of a given garment speaks to a time, a place, and most importantly a tradition – Carnival in Mobile.
Mobile Makers: Present-Day Artists and Artisans of Carnival
November 2019 – March 2020
Mobile Makers showcased a selection of creative geniuses that are behind the Port City’s present-day Mardi Gras celebrations. Featuring thirty artists/artisans, the show highlighted the diversity of not only the Carnival arts, but also Mobile’s cultural scene as a whole. These train designers, couturiers, painters, caterers, jewelers, float designers, costume makers, and other creatives set the tone for Mobile’s greatest living tradition. Individual exhibits on a number of these artists will follow in the years ahead. Many of their creations are found throughout the Carnival Museum’s galleries.
Emily Staples Hearin: Grand Dame of Mobile & Carnival
Summer – Fall 2019
Arguably no individual better represented Mobile and Carnival than Emily Staples Hearin (1916-2004). The 1934 Queen of Carnival legacy still positively informs her hometown and Mardi Gras. This exhibit, which is divided into four parts (childhood, reign, young matron, and civic leader), not only celebrates the great lady & her legacy, but also demonstrates how the monarchs of misrule championed Mobile before & long after their respective reigns.
The Tout Ensemble: Edmond deCelle and the Studio deCelle
March – June 2019
Born in England to a Danish opera singer and Chicago businessman, Edmond deCelle (1889-1972) was a Renaissance man. Upon arriving in Mobile in 1916, deCelle would change the trajectory of Mobile’s cultural scene, particularly as it related to all aspects Carnival. The Tout Ensemble explored deCelle’s life and career in all of their glory. Comprised of paintings, designs for costumes, costumes, trains, designs for tableaux, and much else, the show examined how one amazing man and his atelier took the arts of Carnival to new heights.
John Augustus Walker: Artist and Designer of Mobile and Carnival
Winter 2018
This exhibit examined the life and career of artist and float designer John Augustus Walker (1901-1967). The show explored Walker’s work in relation to the times in which he lived, artistic movements of his time, and evolution of the city which he greatly embellished through his work. Organized by genre and theme, “John Augustus Walker: Artist-Designer of Mobile and Carnival” highlighted how Walker and Carnival were vital parts of the Mobile Renaissance of the 1920s-1960s.
From Silver Julep Cups to Plastic Roadies: The “Spirits” of Carnival
Fall 2018
The “Spirits” of Carnival inaugurated the Mobile Carnival Museum’s thematic exhibit series. This show explored the history of nine libations that animate Mobile’s most special season. The carefully choreographed selection of vessels tells the story of not only the elixirs of Mardi Gras, but also how they fit in the histories of Mobile, Alabama, and American history.