The Darktown Fire Brigade -- Hook and Ladder Gymnastics: "Brace her up dar! and cotch her on de fly!"

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, depicting caricatured Black (African American) figures, shows nine firemen attempting to put out a fire and rescue people from a burning house (at left). The central action shows a terrified Black woman (dressed in her white nightgown) clinging precariously at the top of a ladder, which has just swung back from the blazing building -- the ladder is being supported by one fireman leaning backwards from the bottom rung, while another strains to keep the ladder upright. One fireman (centrally placed in the background) is alarmed to notice that the woman's backside is about to be speared by a sharp pike held by a fireman standing atop the ladder carriage. Meanwhile, another fireman has entered the house (far left); above the entry is a large Black woman (dressed in her white nightgown and night cap) screaming and gesturing from a flaming window, from which her cat has just leapt. In the right foreground, two firefighters (one thin and one fat) point leaking hoses at the fire, but their water streams fall short. In the right background, two firemen are sounding the alarm with their voice trumpets. The title and caption are imprinted 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.