Snapshots of the Past

[D.C. Washington. Fire Department activities: hook & ladder engine (folder 438)] – Vintage Print

[D.C. Washington. Fire Department activities: hook & ladder engine (folder 438)], [between 1909 and 1932] — historic photograph
[D.C. Washington. Fire Department activities: hook & ladder engine (folder 438)], [between 1909 and 1932]. 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: [D.C. Washington. Fire Department activities: hook & ladder engine (folder 438)], 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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[D.C. Washington. Fire Department activities: hook & ladder engine (folder 438)]

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The subject here is a hook and ladder engine of the Washington, D.C., Fire Department, a unit whose job was rescue and forcible entry rather than water pumping. Hook and ladder companies carried long ladders, roof hooks, axes, and other tools for reaching upper floors and opening buildings during a blaze. The picture comes from the National Photo Company Collection, a commercial studio that documented the capital's streets, buildings, and public services in the early twentieth century. Its date range falls in the years when the city's fire companies were changing from horse-drawn apparatus to motor vehicles, which makes the equipment itself worth studying.

Created / published[between 1909 and 1932]
Medium1 photographic print.
NotesTitle and other information transcribed from unverified, old caption card data and item. National Photo Company Collection (Library of Congress). Caption card tracings: Shelf.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
Original scan1,536 × 1,143 px · prints to 5 × 4 in at 300 dpi
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-HPA-121727

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