From the exhibition
The Darktown Fire Brigade: Hook and Ladder Gymnastics
Currier & Ives · 1887
This lithograph by Currier & Ives satirizes firefighting through exaggerated physical comedy. Figures in red uniforms perform acrobatic stunts around steam-powered equipment, with water arcing overhead and chaos erupting at a burning building. The print exemplifies the popular chromolithographic series that made affordable color images accessible to American households in the 1880s.
Public domain, restored and presented by comicbooks.com CC0