Several grotesquely-caricatured African American fireman lounge around their tender smoking pipes, joined by locals. Some of the pipes have ornately-carved bowls. Behind a building also smokes.
The 'Darktown Comics' began in the early 1870s, lampooning Black Americans as lazy and incompetent, becoming a very lucrative series. Between 1884 and 1891 sixteen prints related to the Darktown fire brigade: these were particularly popular so, when Currier & Ives shut down operations in 1907, New York City printer Joseph Koehler purchased the lithographic stones and published reprints for several more years.
Additional information
Dimensions | 425 × 315 mm |
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Cartographer | |
Date | 1910 |
Extra Info | The Darktown Fire Brigade – Taking a Rest. Foreman_ Right you is Parson fis terbakker beats de deck. |
Publication | New York: Joseph Koehler, c.1910. Chromolithograph. Sheet 315 x 425mm. |
Condition | A good example. |
References | – |