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Title: The darktown fire brigade - saved!
Description: Comic print using racist imagery to satirize African American men firefighters. Shows a brigade of eight African American firefighters during a rescue of an African American family from a burning wooden house. Flames and smoke extend from the right side of the roof of a two-story residence. In the center foreground, two firefighters, one not wearing a helmet, hold open a striped blanket. A woman attired in a white nightgown and holding her gown down with one hand and a fan with the other is midair and about to drop, feet first, into it. In the left, another firefighter runs out of the doorway of the building and with a woman over his shoulder. She wears a white cap and night gown. In the right, a fourth firefighter sprays water from a hose into the body of a man in a white nightshirt stuck in a hole in the roof. His head and chest poke through the hole and his legs project out through an upper floor window. The firefighter uses a hose that extends from a fire engine marked "Niagara."It is being pumped by four other firefighters in the right background. The firefighters stand on barrels and push the lever of the water pump on the engine. In the far right distance, another firefighter attends to a donkey. The firefighters are attired in red shirts, blue pants, and black boots. Four men wear helmets, one man wears a top hat, and two men are bare-headed. The men and women figures are portrayed with wide eyes and lips, and large feet. The rescued family members are bare foot. The Darktown series of over 100 prints was originally issued mid 1870s-1890s. Thomas Worth was the artist of several of the prints in the reported popular and profitable series. Joseph Koehler reissued the prints in the early 1900s., Title from item., Reprint of number from "Darktown" comics series originally published in 1884. Joseph Koehler purchased over 200 lithographic stones, including the "Darktown" series, from the Currier & Ives firm following its dissolution in 1907., Contains copyright statement: Copyright 1884, By Currier & Ives, N. Y.
Creator: Currier & Ives
Date: [ca. 1907]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *GC - Genre - Darktown [P.2019.55.4]

Title: Hope Hose Company. Instituted 1805
Description: View of the ornately decorated hose carriage of the company founded on August 17, 1805 by male residents living near Second and Pine streets. Ornamentations include silver plated bells; swan figurines; and a painted scene showing heavenly figures. Image surrounded by oval frame decorated with floral elements., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 112
Creator: Heiss, George G.
Date: [ca. 1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Fires and Firefighting [P.9942]

Title: Northern Liberty Fire Company. No. 1. Instituted May 1st 1756. Incorporated March 18th 1833
Description: View of the hand-powered Philadelphia-style fire engine of the fire company that operated from Front Street below Green Street. Engine contains double decker end-stroke hand pumpers. The compressor contains ornate detailing and is adorned with a plate depicting the figure of Liberty standing beside a pedestal adorned with the portrait of Washington. A trumpet hangs from the harness of the engine. Also contains a border with geometric details., Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POSP 154
Creator: Heiss, George G.
Date: [ca. 1855]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Fires and Firefighting [P.9943]

Title: Broad Street Independant [sic] Church, Philadelphia
Description: Exterior view of the First Independent Church, later renamed Chambers Presbyterian Church, built 1831 at the northeast corner of Broad and Sansom streets. Also shows a partial view of an adjacent building and pedestrian traffic. Pedestrians include a couple with a child and two men greeting one another. Also contains amateur ink-drawn and hand-colored modifications. Retouches show fire hoses in front of the buildings leading to firefighters using a hand-pumper to fight a blaze in the background. Some pedestrian figures also altered with firefigher hats and capes. The church, altered in 1853 to include a front portico, housed the independent congregation of Rev. John Chambers. Congregation admitted to the Presbytery in 1873., Inscribed on recto: S.A. Jackson; see p. 81., Title annotated with a slash through the "a" in "Independant.", Not in Wainwright., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 64, Originally part of a series of eleven scrapbooks compiled by Philadelphia antiquarian Charles A. Poulson in the late 1850s entitled "Illustrations of Philadelphia" volume 4, page 85. The scrapbooks contained photographs of 18th-century public, commercial, and residential buildings in the city of Philadelphia collected by Poulson to document the vanishing architectural landscape.
Creator: Town, E.
Date: [ca. 1850]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Churches and meetinghouses [(4)2526.F.85]

Title: F[ire] and P[olice] Dept. Record. [certificate]
Description: Blank membership certificate for members of fire and police departments that contains eleven views, some montages, documenting the activities of life as a police officer and fireman. Views include call boxes in use by concerned citizens; scenes of rescue, including victims pulled from fires and the restraining of run-away horses and of crowd control, including police assistance during a fire alarm; police in a horse-drawn wagon in a shoot out with a mob throwing bricks; police manning and marching in a parade; racing fire engines and trucks; and a courtroom scene. Also includes a vignette showing a policeman and fireman shaking hands in front of a call box; pictorial details of a billy club, an ax, and flags of different nations; and a border containing cornices depicted as police and firemen helmets. Imagery surrounds a blank entry for genealogical, professional, and death information., Gift of David Doret., Vickroy, a prominent Indiana fine arts publisher, specialized in genealogical and fraternal order certificates.
Creator: J. M. Vickroy Co.
Date: c1902
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department **GC - Certificates - Fire [P.2009.6.3]

Title: Near a fire. Say! Just hold this while I fetch another section, will you. (Likely?)
Description: One of a series of satires mocking the ineptitude of Philadelphia volunteer firefighters. Shows a volunteer, in full uniform, offering a flowing fire hose to an unsuspecting gentleman on a street corner. The gentleman whose hands are occupied with a cigar and a cane looks aghast at the firefighter. A woman watches the scene from the window of her dwelling. Additional streetscape, including a storefront, is visible in the background, Philadelphia on Stone., POS 253b, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Harrison & Weightman was a partnership between Henry G. Harrison and William N. Weightman., Variant of P.8970.12., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - The Fireman (Cartoons)
Date: c1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Fires and Firefighting [P.8970.13]

Title: Near a fire. Say! Just hold this while I fetch another section, will you. (Likely?)
Description: One of a series of satires mocking the ineptitude of Philadelphia volunteer firefighters. Shows a volunteer, in full uniform, offering a flowing fire hose to an unsuspecting gentleman on a street corner. The gentleman whose hands are occupied with a cigar and a cane looks aghast at the firefighter. A woman watches the scene from the window of her dwelling. Additional streetscape, including a storefront, is visible in the background., Philadelphia on Stone., POS 253c, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Harrison & Weightman was a partnership between Henry G. Harrison and William N. Weightman., Variant of P.8970.13., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - The Fireman (Cartoons)
Date: c1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Fires and Firefighting [P.8970.12]

Title: Near a fire. An awkward attachment
Description: One of a series of satires mocking the ineptitude of Philadelphia volunteer firefighters. Shows the volunteer in full uniform catching a male pedestrian in the hook of his ladder as he rushes past the gentleman on the sidewalk. The man shirks backward, his hat falling off, as the hook tugs at his coat collar. Streetscape, including the storefront of a stove business, is visible in the background. Also shows a fire hose sprung with leaks laying in the street., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 253b, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Harrison & Weightman was a partnership between Henry G. Harrison and William N. Weightman., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - The Fireman (Cartoons)
Date: c1858
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *BW - Fires and Firefighting [P.8970.9]

Title: Columbia Hose Co. of Philadelphia [membership certificate]
Description: Fire company honorary membership certificate containing vignettes depicting fire fighters racing a steam engine and hose carriage past Independence Hall; an exterior view of the Columbia Hose Co. station at Cherry Street above Seventh Street; and volunteers fighting a blaze with hoses, a steam engine, and ladder at the French & Richards drugstore at the N.W. corner of 10th and Market streets (October 3, 1865). Station view also shows the station dog, hose carriage, and pedestrian traffic, including a couple looking at a storefront display window of a neighboring building. Fire fighting equipment including a trumpet, ax, ladder, hose and belt are drawn bundled together to form side borders and decorative elements above the vignettes. Also contains, above the images, the company institution date "1806," American eagle and shield, the Roman numeral for 8, i.e., VIII; and the company motto "The Public Benefit Is Our Desire.", Issued to Charles Flowers "admitted to membership" March 4th, 1850 and "honor conferred" December 5th, 1866. Signed G.W. Taylor, President; William R. Fraley, Secretary., Company seal pasted on recto., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 146, Retrospective conversion record: original entry, edited., Free Library of Philadelphia: Philadelphiana - Fire Companies
Creator: Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 21-1886, artist
Date: [ca. 1865]
Location: Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W46 [6531.F]

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