In 1958, Léda Plauché donated a large collection of Mardi Gras costume and float designs and a smaller collection of photographs to the Louisiana Division of New Orleans Public Library. For many years, it was believed that the all of the designs were Mrs. Plauché's work, but it has since become clear that although many were done by Léda Plauché herself, a large number were the work of an earlier designer, Bror Anders Wikstrom. A smaller group of drawings cannot be positively identified as the work of either Plauché or Wikstrom. The Wikstrom designs and the unidentified designs were apparently in Mrs. Plauché's possession and were donated by her along with her own drawings.

Léda Hincks Plauché (Mrs. Henry Plauché) was born in New Orleans in 1886. She designed her first Carnival ball for the Krewe of Nereus in 1916 and, over the next forty years, she included the krewes of Rex, Proteus, Comus, and Momus among her clients. Mrs. Plauché was also the proprietor of the Green Orchid gift shop in the French Quarter. She died in New Orleans in 1980.

A native of Sweden, Bror Anders Wikstrom ran away to sea at a young age and spent a dozen years as a sailor. When he returned from his travels, he studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm and later in Paris before setting out to make his fortune in America. In 1883 Wikstrom came to New Orleans. His entrée to the world of Carnival came when he began to work as assistant to Rex's float and costume designer Charles Briton. When Briton died, Wikstrom succeeded him and continued to design for Rex, and later for Proteus, until his death in 1909.

The collection consists of original costume designs for Carnival parades and balls, photographs of original float designs, and original designs for Carnival floats.