Darktown Fire Brigade: The Chief, On Duty, "Lite up dem hose dar --yous heah me!"

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 print depicts caricatured figures. A barrel-chested Black (African American) man dressed in a belted blue jacket, dark gray pants and a white fireman's hat (labeled "CHIEF"), points his left hand towards the building on fire in the right background. Although he holds a voice trumpet in his right hand, he is not using it to bark his orders (see caption imprinted below the image). As smoke and flames emanate from the house, a few people try to escape out the windows. In front of the burning house is a fireman directing his hose on the flames; beside him are three men trying to pull the large pump handle for more water from the hooked-up water wagon (labeled "NIAGRA"). In the left background, three men with a ladder on their shoulders are directed by another to head for the blazing building. Beyond them, a crowd (some with ladders) are indicated; the crowd is in front of another building with a few figures on its rooftop. Title and caption are imprinted in 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.