
A collection of fascinating historic images has been put together to mark the 300th anniversary of the founding of New Orleans.

Among the striking images are several showing crowds of revellers delighting in Mardi Gras festivals throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

But alongside the masks, outfits and parade floats are photographs of prostitutes working the notorious Storyville district - the only legalised red-light district in a major city in North America until it was shut down in 1917.

Other images capture young children selling milk and fruit in the city's famous French market.

The Big Easy is celebrating its tricentennial year and - as these images show - the city has an extraordinary history.

Since photography was only invented in the the 19th century, however, there are no photographs from when the French and Spanish ruled the city in the 18th century.

Among the striking images are several showing crowds of revellers delighting in Mardi Gras festivals throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries and young children selling milk and fruit in the city's famous French market. The Big Easy is celebrating its tricentennial year and - as these images show - the city has an extraordinary history. Pictured: Street life in New Orleans, circa 1910s

A huge crowd turns out for the Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, around 1900. Celebrations are concentrated in the two weeks leading up to Shrove Tuesday, which is the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of lent. Most days have a major parade of their own, and some even have several. The biggest events, including masquerade balls, tend to be in the final five days of the festival

A depiction of a Zulu King during Mardi Gras, New Orleans, February 1936. The Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club was founded in 1916 and puts on a Zulu parade every year in New Orleans. It is famous for its dancers in blackface and grass skirts. Participants also famously throw coconuts

Alongside the masks, outfits and parade floats are photographs of prostitutes working the notorious Storyville district - the only legalised red-light district in a major city in North America until it was shut down in 1917. The above photograph shows a naked woman sitting in a doorway - with a bed just visible in the gloomy back room behind her. The picture was taken in the 1910s

Pictured left: A prostitute from New Orleans's Storyville district, circa 1912. Right: A woman on a balcony wearing a dressing gown in the area of Storyville, circa 1900s. Established in 1897, it was closed in 1917. Its closure was linked to the stationing of sailors with the US Navy nearby during the First World War. Secretary of War Newton Baker did not want his fighting men distracted and so pushed for the closure of the red light district

The Mercier building, home to a department store. The grand Victorian building was demolished in 1908. La Nouvelle-Orléans, the old name for the Big Easy, was founded in the spring of 1718 and named after the Regent of France at the time, who was also the Duke of Orléans

A New Orleans milk cart, circa 1903. The French colony of La Nouvelle-Orléans was ceded to the Spanish empire in 1763 and remained Spanish until the beginning of the 19th century. Nearly all of the architecture in the famous French Quarter was built in this period

Birthday celebrations for Josie Arlington, seated left, February 8, 1908, in Storyville, New Orleans. Josie was one of Storyville's most successful madams. After being born into poverty, she rose to own 'The Arlington,' one of the more decadent brothels

Newspaper stand at 103 Royal Street, New Orleans, July 1908. To the vendor's right is a photograph of what appears to Howard Taft, who would become president of the United States the following year

A masked group in the French Quarter, New Orleans, 1905. Laws against hiding one's face with a mask are suspended for Mardi Gras to accommodate the tradition

The Rex Parade on Camp Street during Mardi Gras, 1910s. The state of Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a holiday in 1875. In 1875 Louisiana declared Mardi Gras a legal state holiday. New Orleans has celebrated the festival every year, despite war and depression causing cancellations elsewhere

Pictured: Mardia Gras in New Orleans, circa 1900. In 1972, the city hosted the final parade going through narrow streets in the French Quarter. Instead, the crowds were forced to skirt the area along Canal Street over health and safety concerns

Left: A seated woman wearing striped stockings and drinking Raleigh Rye in Storyville, New Orleans, circa 1912. Storyville was the only legalised red-light district in a major city in North America, until it was shut down in 1917. Right: A sign on a shop advertising costumes for Mardi Gras in 1940

A leisure resort in the West End of New Orleans, 1901. After the abolition of slavery in the United States, New Orleans was host to a struggle for civil rights as the large black population fought against institutionalized racism

Old French Courtyard, Royal St, New Orleans, LA, circa 1900. As the years passed, the French language slowly died in the city, but as late as the 1930s there were old women who still spoke only French and knew no English

A group of children with donkey and cart in the Lower French markets, New Orleans, circa 1910. Nearly a century before this photograph was taken, in 1812, British forces fought the young nation of the USA in the Battle of New Orleans, where General Andrew Jackson led a ragtag army to a great victory