Early Car Camping

Early automobile tourists frequently slept in or near their vehicles. In the late teens and early twenties, such travelers were encouraged to set up camp in the Crescent City's municipal parks and along its levees. Both City Park and Audubon Park operated short-lived no-fee auto camps.

Norwegian-American pathfinder Anthon L. Westgard published a guide to car camping for the American Automobile Association in 1920. The guide, Official AAA Manual of Motor Car Camping, featured various advertisements for newly invented products, such as the A.B.C. Sleeper and the Stoll Auto Bed (shown above).

Westgard provided advice regarding setting up camp, travelers' attire and how to properly stock first aid kits. His guide featured recipes for making biscuits, cornmeal mush, squirrel and rabbit. His "Health Hints Worth Heeding" also included the following travelers' remedies:

For Lockjaw. --Warm a small quantity of spirits of turpentine and pound into the wound, and bathe backbone with cayenne pepper and water, or mustard and water (vinegar is even better than water). Use as hot as the sufferer can stand it.

To Remove Cinder or Sand from the Eye.--One or two grains of flaxseed placed in the eye. All campers should carry a few of these seeds. Or drop castor oil in the eye freely. Do not rub the sore eye--rub the other eye.

Images above:  A.L. Westgard. Official AAA Manual of Motor Car Camping. Washington, D.C. and New York: A.L. Westgard, 1920. Courtesy University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries.

Mama Lou's 1961

In 1961, freelance artist  Florence Mars (1923-2006) spent time at Mama Lou's Camp, which was located on Lake Pontchartrain in Little Woods. The structure was significantly damaged by fire months after Mars shot this photograph.

During the late 1940s Mars worked in Atlanta, but her grandfather's death in 1950 prompted her to spend more time in New Orleans. She became associated with the Allison Art Colony in Way, Mississippi and her 1955 painting Trumpet Player was exhibited in the colony's inaugural show at the Delgado Museum, now the New Orleans Museum of Art. Mars took many  photographs of New Orleans musicians, buildings and parades.  Christiern Albertson hired Mars -- along with Ralston Crawford --  to take photographs for Riverside Records' "Living Legends" series.

Florence Mars donated a number of photographs to Tulane University Libraries, but the bulk of her image archive was given to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1982. Some of her jazz photographs may be consulted at Tulane University's Hogan Jazz Archive.

In the spring of 1947, the venue was advertised for sale as "Mamma Lou's."(1)

(1) Advertisement. The Times-Picayune 30 May 1947.


Photograph:  Florence Mars. Mama Lou's, Little Woods, New Orleans, LA. 1961. Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.  This image is issued by the Southeastern Architectural Archive. Use of the image requires written permission from the staff of the SEAA. It may not be sold or redistributed, copied or distributed as a photograph, electronic file, or any other media. The user is responsible for all issues of copyright.