The Darktown Fire Brigade -- Saved!

The late nineteenth-century Darktown prints by Currier & Ives depict racist stereotypes that are offensive and disturbing. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.

This Darktown scene with caricatured Black (African American) figures shows a brigade of eight firefighters (each wearing a red shirt, blue pants, and black boots) during a rescue of a family from a burning two-story wooden house. Flames and smoke blaze from the right side of the roof (upper center). In the center foreground, two firefighters (one wearing a helmet) hold open a striped, yet holey, blanket. In midair, and about to drop barefeet first onto the blanket, is a young woman, dressed in a white nightgown; she holds the hem of her gown down with one hand, while her other hand holds a fan coyly in front of her face. At the left, another firefighter (his helmet askew) exits the doorway with a large woman (also in white night attire) over his shoulder. To the right of the helmeted fireman holding the blanket, a fourth firefighter (also wearing a helmet) sprays water from a hose onto the roof. Instead of aiming the water at the flames, the water drenches a man (dressed in his white nightshirt); his head protrudes through a hole in the roof, while his legs project out through an attic window below. The firefighter's hose extends from a fire pump wagon labeled "Niagara" (in the right background). Four other firemen (three of them standing on barrels) push the long lever of the water pump on the wagon. In the far right distance, another firefighter attends to a donkey. The title and caption are inprinted in the bottom margin.


Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907.