From the exhibition
The Darktown Hook and Ladder Corps: Going to the Front
Currier & Ives · 1884
This Currier & Ives lithograph belongs to the 'Darktown Comics' series, popular mass-produced prints that reached American households in the 1880s. The composition depicts Black firefighters with exaggerated features and comic poses in slapstick disorder, surrounding a horse-drawn fire wagon. Multiple figures wield tools and weapons; children watch from the left. The print exemplifies visual comedy prevalent in 19th-century popular culture and shaped the visual grammar of early mass media.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com CC0