The Darktown Fire Brigade -- All on Their Mettle: "Git dere fust if you's bust you trousers!"

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 depicts three units of a fire brigade --men accompanying a hose wagon, a pump wagon, and a ladder wagon --all running on three separate rural roads which converge into one lane at a wooden bridge in the foreground. The firemen in each brigade are differentiated by the colors of their shirts: red for the ladder wagon (pulled by a white horse), blue for the pump wagon (pulled by a donkey), and yellow for the hose wagon (pulled by two men in white shirts). At the lower left, a blue-shirted fireman is on the bridge, falling backwards, as he blows his voice horn to encourage his brigade to reach the bridge first. On the river's edge at the lower right, a fireman in a red shirt holds his voice horn with his upraised right hand. At the far left, the yellow-shirted fireman shouts into his voice horn besides his crew. On the road at the far right, the red-shirted fire chief, holding his ceremonial staff, races to catch up with his men. A disaster appears to be about to occur. The title and caption are inprinted in the bottom margin. [For the companion print, see accession number 52.632.41.]

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.