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Within the Bellingrath Collection is a cast iron cat produced around 1900 by the Hubley Manufacturing Co. of Lancaster, Penn. The cat is also a long-standing symbol of one of Mobile’s oldest Mardi Gras organizations: the Infant Mystics.
The organization’s earliest symbol consisted prominently of a cotton bale since cotton sampling was a popular profession in Mobile. A knight was added representing undying chivalry, along with an elephant as a symbol of unfailing remembrance.
A black cat was placed atop the cotton bale. The cat has been described by some Carnival historians as being “a symbol of all things inscrutable, of mystery and secrecy.” The organization itself has been quoted as saying their cat had no link to the occult and that “he was really just a mascot of alley ancestry.”
The 2025 Infant Mystics parade (always held on Monday night before Mardi Gras) had as its theme “Cats Love a Hair-Raising Adventure.” This was an historic night as it was the first time their parade had started from Cotton Hall, the former Protestant Orphan’s Asylum on Dauphin Street.
Now what do the IMs and their cat have to do with the Bellingraths? Walter Bellingrath was a proud member of the Infant Mystics and that cast iron cat has a remarkable resemblance to the IM Cat. So happy Mardi Gras!