Snapshots of the Past

[Firehouse scene showing firemen leaving firehouse pulling a hand-drawn fire engine] – Vintage Print

[Firehouse scene showing firemen leaving firehouse pulling a hand-drawn fire engine], [ca. 1857] — historic drawing
[Firehouse scene showing firemen leaving firehouse pulling a hand-drawn fire engine], [ca. 1857]. Historic drawing from the Fire Engines collection.

(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

A window into the past: [Firehouse scene showing firemen leaving firehouse pulling a hand-drawn fire engine], preserved in this historic drawing. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Firehouse scene showing firemen leaving firehouse pulling a hand-drawn fire engine]

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A watercolor from about 1857 shows a company of firemen leaving their station while they haul a hand-drawn engine into the street. In that decade most American fire protection came from volunteer companies, and crews pulled their apparatus by hand rather than with horses. Fire companies were also social clubs, and a turnout like this one was a point of pride and rivalry between neighborhoods. The scene shows how quickly crews had to move and how central the hand engine was to city life before steam pumpers became common.

Created / published[ca. 1857]
Medium1 drawing : watercolor.
GenreWatercolors 1850-1860.Drawings Color 1850-1860.
NotesMarian S. Carson Collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress, 1997-1998; loan 4105-L. Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 1997:105
SubjectsFire stations--1850-1860. Fire engines & equipment--1850-1860. Fire fighters--1850-1860.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,835 × 4,705 px · prints to 13 × 16 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-219898

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