Firemen's Insurance Co., New York (Printed policy)
The top of this certificate is adorned with an image of firemen battling a burning city building, the adjacent street leading down to a river. Printed text below identifies the policy holder and the type of coverage. Fire was an ever present danger in densely built lower Manhattan and the city famously suffered devastating blazes in 1776, when ten to twenty-five percent of it buildings were destroyed, and again in 1836 when seventeen city blocks went up in flames. This insurance certificate was issued between those two fires, two years after the opening of the Erie Canal had spurred trade and related commercial real estate. In the 1820s the city's first volunteer fire companies were established, each offering policies that guaranteed the holder their service if a blaze broke out. This policy is of a different type, offering Noah Scoville replacement value for soap making materials housed in warehouses on Chappel and York Streets.
Artwork Details
- Title: Firemen's Insurance Co., New York (Printed policy)
- Author: Issued by Firemen's Insurance Co. (American, 19th century)
- Printer: Vanderpool & Cole (American, active 1820–30)
- Date: 1827
- Medium: Etching and letterpress with pen and ink script
- Dimensions: Image: 4 5/8 × 8 3/8 in. (11.8 × 21.2 cm)
Sheet (folded): 16 1/4 × 10 3/16 in. (41.2 × 25.8 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: The Edward W. C. Arnold Collection of New York Prints, Maps and Pictures, Bequest of Edward W. C. Arnold, 1954
- Object Number: 54.90.1700
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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