An American steam fire engine – Vintage Wall Art
(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 engraving of An American steam fire engine. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. Perfect for a home, office, library or classroom wall, and a gift with a story behind it. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
An American steam fire engine
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Unlike the hand-pumped engines that dominated early firefighting, this wood engraving shows a steam-powered machine, the kind that began replacing manual pumpers in American cities during the 1850s. It appeared in *The Graphic*, the London illustrated weekly founded in 1869, in its November 23, 1872 issue, which suggests British readers were interested in how American towns fought fires. Steam engines could pump far more water than crews working by hand, a major advance in urban fire protection. The record's caption details are unverified, so the specific machine shown should be read with that in mind.
| Created / published | 1872 Nov. 23. |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print : wood engraving. |
| Notes | Illus. in: The Graphic, 1872 Nov. 23. This record contains unverified, old data from caption card. Caption card tracings: Fire engines; Geogr. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 1,536 × 925 px · prints to 5 × 3 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-146916 |
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