The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, has celebrated Mardi Gras since at least the 1830s. “New Orleans, the great Mardi Gras city of old days, held no celebration this year. She is in sackcloth and ashes,” an Ohio newspaper reported in February 1875.
 
The nickname “Mardi Gras City” became popular by 1890, and is still used today. A pamphlet titled City of the Mardi Gras was published in 1946.
 
Other New Orleans nicknames include “America’s Most Interesting City,” “Baghdad-on-the-Bayou,” “Big Crescent,” “Big Easy,” “Big Greasy,” “Big Sleazy,” “Birthplace of Jazz,” “Chocolate City,” “Chopper City,” “City of a Million Dreams,” “City of Yes,” “City That Care Forgot,” “City That Forgot to Care,” “Convention City,” “Crawfish Town,” “Creole City,” “Crescent City,” “Erb City,” “Gateway of the Mississippi Valley,” “Gumbo City,” “Hollywood South,” “Jump City,” “Metropolis of the South,” “N’Awlins,” “Necropolis of the South,” “Nerlins,”

“No Orleans” (after Hurricane Katrina), “NOLA,” “Northernmost Banana Republic,” “Northernmost Caribbean City,” “Old Swampy,” “Paris of America,” “Queen City,” “Saint City,” “Silicon Bayou,” “Silicon Swamp” and “Sweet Lady Gumbo.”
     
     
Wikipedia: New Orleans
New Orleans (/nuː ˈɔːrlᵻnz, -ˈɔːrli.ənz, -ɔːrˈliːnz/, or /ˈnɔːrlᵻnz/; French: La Nouvelle-Orléans [la nuvɛlɔʁleɑ̃] ( listen)) is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The population of the city was 343,829 as of the 2010 U.S. Census. The New Orleans metropolitan area (New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area) had a population of 1,167,764 in 2010 and was the 46th largest in the United States. The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area, a larger trading area, had a 2010 population of 1,452,502.
(...)
Entertainment and performing arts
The New Orleans area is home to numerous celebrations, the most popular of which is Carnival, often referred to as Mardi Gras. Carnival officially begins on the Feast of the Epiphany, also known as the “Twelfth Night”. Mardi Gras (French for “Fat Tuesday”), the final and grandest day of festivities, is the last Tuesday before the Catholic liturgical season of Lent, which commences on Ash Wednesday.
 
Mardi Gras History
The earliest reference to Mardi Gras “Carnival” appears in a 1781 report to the Spanish colonial governing body. That year, the Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association was the first of hundreds of clubs and carnival organizations formed in New Orleans.
 
By the late 1830s, New Orleans held street processions of maskers with carriages and horseback riders to celebrate Mardi Gras. Dazzling gaslight torches, or “flambeaux,” lit the way for the krewe’s members and lent each event an exciting air of romance and festivity. In 1856, six young Mobile natives formed the Mistick Krewe of Comus, invoking John Milton’s hero Comus to represent their organization. Comus brought magic and mystery to New Orleans with dazzling floats (known as tableaux cars) and masked balls. Krewe members remained anonymous.
 
In 1870, Mardi Gras’ second Krewe, the Twelfth Night Revelers, was formed. This is also the first recorded account of Mardi Gras “throws.”
     
Chronicling America
18 February 1875, The Highland News (Hillsborough, OH), pg. 2, col. 2:
New Orleans, the great Mardi Gras city of old days, held no celebration this year. She is in sackcloth and ashes.
 
24 July 1890, Emmet County Republican (Estherville, IA), pg. 5, col. 5:
CORN PALACE PAGEANT.
The Designer of the Mardi Gras Parade will Superintend It.
From Sioux City Journal, July 7: Secretary Cleland received word by wire last evening from New Orleans that the contract had been closed with Francois Dubois, the French artist and designer, who has been brought over by the Mardi Gras authorities to design and equip next year’s Mardi Gras procession, to furnish the Corn Palace association with the most unique, ovel and dazzling street pageant ever seen outside of the Mardi Gras city.
 
Chronicling America
6 September 1890, Evening Capital Journal (Salem, OR), “Eva at the Seaside,” pg. 1, col. 5:
A winter at the Mardi Gras city convinced me that New Orleans was no American city, but I imagined I was in France.
   
6 March 1892, Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer, pg. 3, col. 1:
The fight at New Orleans is likely to lead to a number of matches, the most prominent being a possible meeting of Sullivan and Mitchell. (...) The wires also bring news from the Mardi Gras city that Corbett and Choyinski have been matched, but Corbett, who is in this city,  says he will not fight Choyinski again, as he has already beaten him four times.
 
Chronicling America
4 February 1904, Houston (TX) Daily Post, pg. 3, col. 3:
J. F. Weaver, Pullman conductor, came in from New Orleans yesterday and took charge of the Southern Pacific’s extra sleeper for the Mardi Gras city last night.
 
2 May 1901, Los Angeles (CA) Times, pg. 1, col. 3:
MARDI GRAS CITY IN GALA ATTIRE.
New Orleans Receives Its First Presidential Visitor in Befitting Manner—Striking Enthusiasm.
 
OCLC WorldCat record
City of the Mardi gras
Author: Harry L De Vore; Martin Yoseloff
Publisher: New York, Beechhurst Press, B. Ackerman, Inc. [1946]
Edition/Format:   eBook : Document : English
Subjects
New Orleans (La.)—Pictorial works.
Louisiana—New Orleans.
 
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