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Hot Collectibles: Memorabilia From the History of American Fire Fighting
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15299 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1989 |
1,695 Words |
| Author
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Rosemary G. Rennicke
Rosemary G. Rennicke is a freelance writer from Buckingham,
Pennsylvania, who specializes in interior design and antiques. |
For all the advances that fire has brought to civilization--enabling our ancestors to do everything from cooking food to making tools--it remains among the most feared and destructive forces in nature. The great fires of history are proof to that: Nero supposedly fiddled while Rome burned in A.D. 64; London was leveled by fire in 1666; colonial Boston burned six times; Chicago was set ablaze in 1871; and San Francisco smoldered after the 1906 earthquake.
It is no wonder, then, that through the centuries we have expended as much effort trying to extinguish fires as early man did trying to start them. We have fought with water borne laboriously in buckets, pumped exhaustingly by hand from special water wagons, and spurted haltingly from primitive leather hoses. We have hacked at collapsing structures with axes and hooks, rescued trapped victims with ladders and smothered flames with cloth swabs.
The courageous "fire ladies" (and lassies) who battled our nation's early blazes have left a legacy of fire-fighting memorabilia, everything from imposing fire engines to tiny tin badges. American fire collectibles from the seventeenth through early twentieth centuries are hot, not only for their intrinsic beauty, but for the images they summon of solidarity, neighborly cooperation, volunteerism, and self-sacrifice in the face of danger.
The most recognizable type of fire-fighting equipment is the fire engine. Far from the fleet red truck of today, the antique "injine" can mean anything from the hand-carried, hand-pumped water tubs of the late 1600s to the multiton steamers of the mid-nineteenth century. Most of these machines are now the province of museums and beyond the reach of the fire buff. But there is a wealth of smaller objects every bit as evocative of fire-fighting history. From antique fire engines come silver-plated and brass lanterns with etched-glass panels, fancy bells, and ornamental hose nozzles. There are also delicate, stylized scenes painted on mahogany panels to decorate an engine's sides. These depicted many mythological and allegorical subjects, such as "Hope," as well as patriotic motifs, battle scenes, and such national heroes as Ben Franklin and George Washington. Less ornamental were engine plates--brass shields inscribed with the fire company's name.
Buckets and hats
Among the oldest pieces of firefighting equipment are fire buckets, three-gallon leather pails that citizens and fire companies were
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