The American fireman: facing the enemy – Vintage Wall Art
![The American fireman: facing the enemy, [New York] : Currier & Ives, 1858. — antique lithograph](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/2e/2e0cbb699e7c-L.webp)
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
Few images capture their era like this antique lithograph of The American fireman: facing the enemy. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
Choose the framed print, ready to hang the day it arrives, or the unframed print for a frame of your own. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
The American fireman: facing the enemy
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Here the fire itself is cast as the enemy, a blaze that volunteer firemen must face head on. Currier & Ives, the New York firm that sold inexpensive lithographs to a broad public, produced many scenes like this in the 1850s, when volunteer fire companies were social clubs as much as public services and their hand-pumped engines were a source of local pride. Hand coloring, applied to this lithograph, was a common finish that made each sheet look a little like a painting. The print is worth reading for its heroic framing of work that was dangerous and done by unpaid volunteers.
| Created / published | [New York] : Currier & Ives, 1858. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print : lithograph, hand col. |
| Genre | Lithographs Hand colored 1850-1860. |
| Notes | Currier & Ives : a catalogue raisonné / compiled by Gale Research. Detroit, MI : Gale Research, c1983, no. 0166. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 2,727 × 3,321 px · prints to 9 × 11 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | tif01579_TheAmericanfiremanfacingtheene |
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