Opening Hours
Daily: 10 A.M.–5 P.M.
Closed on Tuesdays
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108
Visual Materials
Series II. Firefighting Prints and Ephemera (large size)
- Description
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.
