Snapshots of the Past

[Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore, firefighter, half-length portrait, facing front, wearing parade hat and holding speaker trumpet] – Vintage Photo Print

[Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore, firefighter, half-length portrait, facing front, wearing parade hat and holding speaker trumpet], [between 1840 and 1860] — historic photograph
[Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore, firefighter, half-length portrait, facing front, wearing parade hat and holding speaker trumpet], [between 1840 and 1860]. Historic photograph 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: [Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore, firefighter, half-length portrait, facing front, wearing parade hat and holding speaker trumpet], preserved in this historic photograph. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.

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[Vigilant Fire Company, Baltimore, firefighter, half-length portrait, facing front, wearing parade hat and holding speaker trumpet]

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A firefighter from Baltimore's Vigilant Fire Company faces the camera squarely, his parade hat on and a speaking trumpet in hand, the tool used to bellow orders over the noise of a blaze. Between 1840 and 1860, volunteer companies in Baltimore were as much social clubs as firefighting crews, proud of their uniforms and eager to show them off in public parades. Daguerreotypes such as this sixth-plate example were unique images on silvered copper, and the hand coloring adds warmth to the face and detail to the hat and trumpet that the bare plate could not provide.

Created / published[between 1840 and 1860]
Medium1 photograph : sixth-plate daguerreotype, hand colored.
GenreD.C.
NotesBack of case: mixed flowers surrounded by scrolls. Labels on case: 57
SubjectsFire fighters--Maryland--Baltimore--1840-1860.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan3,719 × 4,730 px · prints to 12 × 16 in at 300 dpi
Reference533_Vigilant_Fire_Company_B_1840

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