Rows of whitewashed above-ground tombs and vaults, several topped with crosses, line a narrow sandy walk in St. Louis Cemetery, New Orleans. The cemetery opened in 1789 and is the city's oldest surviving burial ground, known for wall vaults and oven-like tombs built above ground because the high water table of the Mississippi delta made conventional graves impractical. A handwritten note on the card records a visitor's impression of the sealed vaults and the bodies "all alone in the ground."
Postcard Details
Message · English, in pen
from Papa Dec 4 1905
We left home
took pictures leave
openings peculiar to
the [illegible] in [illegible] but
which the bodies are
[illegible] and its seeming
to them sealed. The bodies
are all alone in the ground
PostmarkedNew Orleans, LA, December 5, 1905, 10:30
White border; handwritten message in blue ink on the right side of the front; light edge wear and soiling; color print with a grainy photochrom texture.
Postmark: NEW ORLEANS LA DEC 5 10 30 AM 1905 (also a receiving mark, AMESBURY MASS DEC 8 7 AM, partly cut off at the lower edge). Undivided back with red "POST CARD" heading and "THIS SIDE FOR THE ADDRESS"; 1c Franklin adhesive stamp; front carries a 1901 Detroit Photographic copyright line. Light edge/corner wear, a few foxing spots.
Cite this card
Old vaults in St. Louis Cemetery, New Orleans, LA, 1905, postcard, c. 1905. PostalPast Collection. https://postalpast.com/postcard/old-vaults-in-st-louis-cemetery-new-orleans-la-1905. Accessed November 2, 2026.
