The Darktown Hook and Ladder Corps: In Action

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 shows caricatured Black (African American) figures. A team of six firefighters (dressed in red shirts, blue pants, boots and fire helmets) are attempting to rescue inhabitants from a burning wooden house. In the lower foreground (to left of center), two firemen stand on the ground holding a striped blanket to catch a jumping victim, but instead, a man in an upper story window lowers a burning stove into it. At center (above the doorway), a firefighter at the top of a ladder (leaning against the roof) pulls the leg of a fat person stuck in a dormer window. To their right, two people in white nightgowns, jump from the roof --away from the flames coming from a dormer window. Viewed between one of the jumper's legs is the face of a terrified person in an upper story window; below, a fireman in the lower story window extends a pike with a boy (dressed in white) hanging from a hook at the other end. At lower right, two more firefighters hold a sheet for one of the figures jumping from the roof. Also visible are the legs and lower torso descending a wooden ladder propped against the right side of the building. At the left side of the building, a boy jumps from a window, even though a ladder is next to it. At the top of that ladder, a fireman throws water from his bucket onto the face of a man emerging from the chimney. Between them, another head peeks over the top of the roof. The print's title is 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.