Jay T. Last Collection of Firefighting Prints and Ephemera | Collections | The Huntington

Jay T. Last Collection of Firefighting Prints and Ephemera | Collections | The Huntington

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Firefighting Prints and Ephemera (8 x 10 inches or smaller in size)
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of firefighting prints and ephemera contains more than 150 printed items that relate to firefighting and the activities and organizations of firemen in the United States from approximately 1820 to 1909. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or pertaining to firefighting organizations, related social or charitable events, and firefighting vehicles, equipment, and supplies. Large-size items consist of lithographic and engraved prints including fire department membership and discharge certificates; depictions of fires and firefighters working to extinguish blazes; builders prints of fire engines and similar vehicles, and images and advertisements pertaining to social and charitable events involving fire departments and related organizations. The small-size items consist mainly of business documents and advertising and promotional ephemera such as printed booklets, trade cards, small programs, menus, tickets and invitations for charitable and social events such balls, concerts, musters, and celebrations, business cards, lapel ribbons, book and periodical illustrations, membership certificates, and stationery with printed billheads and letterheads filled out in manuscript.
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Firefighting Prints and Ephemera (between 8 x 10 inches and 11 x 14 inches in size)
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last collection of firefighting prints and ephemera contains more than 150 printed items that relate to firefighting and the activities and organizations of firemen in the United States from approximately 1820 to 1909. The collection consists of advertising and promotional materials, business records, and illustrations produced for or pertaining to firefighting organizations, related social or charitable events, and firefighting vehicles, equipment, and supplies. Large-size items consist of lithographic and engraved prints including fire department membership and discharge certificates; depictions of fires and firefighters working to extinguish blazes; builders prints of fire engines and similar vehicles, and images and advertisements pertaining to social and charitable events involving fire departments and related organizations. The small-size items consist mainly of business documents and advertising and promotional ephemera such as printed booklets, trade cards, small programs, menus, tickets and invitations for charitable and social events such balls, concerts, musters, and celebrations, business cards, lapel ribbons, book and periodical illustrations, membership certificates, and stationery with printed billheads and letterheads filled out in manuscript.
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Series I. Firefighting Prints and Ephemera (small size)
Visual Materials
This series contains more than 160 small-size printed items that pertain to firefighting and the activities and organizations of firemen in the United States from approximately 1820 to 1909. The items consist of business records and advertising and promotional materials produced for or pertaining to firefighting organizations, related social or charitable events, and firefighting vehicles, equipment, and supplies. The entities represented in these materials include fire departments, engine and hose companies, relief funds, veterans' associations, and firefighting vehicle, equipment, and supply manufacturers such as engine works and pump and hose manufacturers. Item types consist of printed booklets, trade cards, small programs, menus, tickets and invitations for charitable and social events such balls, concerts, musters, and celebrations, business cards, lapel ribbons, book and periodical illustrations, membership certificates, and stationery with printed billheads and letterheads filled out in manuscript. Many of these items are decorated with images that include depictions of firefighters assembling for duty and responding to alarms, fighting fires, and rescuing victims; views of burning and damaged buildings, and ruins amid flames, rubble, and smoke; and images of firefighting vehicles and equipment including steam fire engines, manual fire engines, hook and ladder trucks, hose carriages, fire hydrants, hoses, ladders, preventers, axes, and speaking trumpets. While most of the materials date from the second half of the 19th century, among the earliest items in the collection is a circa 1820 engraving of a fire pumper that advertises the Philadelphia firm of Sellers & Pennock Patent River Hose, Fire Bucket and Hydraulion Manufacturers. Also of note are four small lithographs of parade floats carrying New York City firefighters and fire engines that were printed by Anthony Imbert of New York City and published in 1826 as part of an appendix to the 1825 Memoir by Cadwallader D. Colden commemorating the New York celebration of the opening of the Erie Canal. Later items include an 1886 booklet for the Veteran Firemen's Association annual ball held at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, containing multiple pages of advertisements and illustrations for firefighting apparatus and related services interspersed with four images of historic New York City fires; and twelve color covers with images of "Young Wide Awake" in firefighting scenes from the Wide Awake Weekly dime-novel/penny-dreadful series that was published by Frank Tousey between 1906 and 1909.
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Series II. Firefighting Prints and Ephemera (large size)
Visual Materials
This series contains 40 large-size printed items related to firefighting and the activities and organizations of firemen in the United States between 1826 and 1907. The series is comprised mainly of lithographic and engraved prints including fire department membership and discharge certificates, depictions of fires and firefighters working to extinguish blazes, builder's prints of fire engines and similar vehicles, and images and advertisements pertaining to social and charitable events involving fire departments and related organizations. These items were produced for a variety of purposes including as illustrations in books, as promotional materials, as documentary and commemorative prints, and as certificates attesting to the service of firemen. They consist mainly of color-printed, hand-colored, and uncolored lithographs and engravings by American artists, printers, and publishers. Many of these prints contain scenes of firefighters assembling for duty and responding to alarms, fighting fires, and rescuing victims; views of burning and damaged buildings and ruins; and images of firefighting vehicles and equipment including steam fire engines, manual fire engines, hook and ladder trucks, hose carriages, fire hydrants, hoses, ladders, preventers, axes, and speaking trumpets. The items primarily pertain to the Northeastern United States, though the materials do include certificates for fire companies in Gold Hill, Nevada (1867), Albany, Oregon (1874), and Alameda, California (1893); a print of a manual fire engine used by the Pacific Engine Company of San Francisco, California (1851); and a view of the June 20, 1877, fire in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada. The series features: Certificates that document membership in fire companies or benevolent societies, or the exemption or discharge of firemen from service. Most of these certificates are decorated with multiple vignettes including images of recent or historic fires fought by the company, as well as more generic scenes of firemen and equipment. Prints produced for firefighting vehicle builders and manufacturers, similar to railroad locomotive builder's prints, that prominently feature views of steam and manual fire engines and often include the name of the fire company that purchased the engine. Items pertaining to parades, balls, and celebrations involving firefighters.
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Jay T. Last Collection of Finance Prints and Ephemera
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last Collection of Finance Prints and Ephemera contains approximately 1,075 printed items from the United States dating from 1794 to 1926, with the bulk of the content dating from 1840 to 1900. Items are related to the creation, distribution, and management of money as well as the conduct or transaction of money matters, including the protection or sale of personal and real property by agents, brokers, dealers, or land developers. This category covers accounting, auctions, banking, collection agencies, credits and loans, insurance, investment, and real estate along with the equipment, supplies, and structures associated with these businesses such as cash registers, checks, insurance policies, paper currency, and financial buildings. Most items are lithographs, but engravings and woodcuts are also included. Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (more than 11 x 14 inches). Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and select small-size items are fully inventoried with printers, artists, and publishers indexed by name. The collection includes 54 large-size items comprised mainly of advertising prints and insurance agreements. Small-size items number approximately 1,020 and contain a variety of materials, including trade cards, checks, leaflets, currency, imitation currency, and printed billheads and letterheads (with and without manuscript text). Of note are more than 100 bank checks issued by John H. Piatt & Co. Bankers of Cincinnati, Ohio, dating from 1817 to 1820 (Binder 1). They are signed by various Cincinnati-area businessmen and citizens including shoe store owner James Chute, druggist William Crissey, Methodist preacher Adbeel Coleman, and American Revolutionary War veteran Abraham Chase. The collection provides a look at the evolution of advertising strategies and contractual language in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The images on the insurance-related materials often include depictions of fires and natural disasters, providing a resource for studying the history of emergency response and firefighting during this era. As graphic materials, the collection highlights developing techniques and trends in printmaking while documenting the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
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Jay T. Last Collection of Education Prints and Ephemera
Visual Materials
The Jay T. Last Collection of Education Prints and Ephemera contains over 2,200 printed items related to education in the United States from 1788 to approximately 1930, with the bulk of the items dating from 1850 to 1910. Most of these items are lithographs, but engravings and woodcuts are also included. Materials are arranged in two series: small-size items (11 x 14 inches or less) and large-size items (more than 11 x 14 inches). Small-size items are described broadly at the series level; large-size items and select small-size items are fully inventoried with printers, artists, and publishers indexed by name. The collection includes over 75 large-size items comprised mainly of lithographed views of colleges and universities, diplomas and other certificates, penmanship examples, and uncut sheets of rewards of merit. Small-size items number approximately 2,150 and contain a variety of materials, including copy and writing books (composition books), arithmetic and ciphering books, tuition bills, programs and tickets to graduations and other school events, certificates, trade cards, student identification cards, postcards, ribbons, and printed billheads and letterheads (with and without manuscript text). The collection highlights institutions, products, and services relating to personal knowledge, understanding, character building, and moral and social qualities including the tools, equipment, supplies, and structures used for learning and teaching these disciplines in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This includes items associated with academic achievement, exhibits, lectures, and institutions of learning. The images provide a rich visual resource for studying the history of American educational institutions, methods, and materials, as well as a perspective on student life and activities during the 19th and early 20th centuries. As graphic materials, the prints and ephemera offer evidence of developing techniques and trends in printmaking, and of the artists, engravers, lithographers, printers, and publishers involved in the creative process.
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