c. 1875 Tintype photograph of an African American firefighter in uniform, subject matter that is exceedingly rare. He wears a military-style kepi and a plastron shirt of the classic early firefighting style. Excitingly, he also has his fireman’s badge pinned to this shirt, and the image is clear enough to almost make out all of the minute details.

This particular gentleman would have been in the vanguard of African American firemen, as photographic evidence of black men serving in that profession in the 19th century are somewhat limited. Rare occupational image.



[Antique Photography, Daguerreotype, Ambrotype, Albumen, carte-de-visite, CDV, Tintype] [African American History, Black Americana, Slavery, Slave, Abolition, Abolitionist, Emancipation Proclamation, 13th Amendment] [John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, Ulysses S. Grant, US Grant] [Civil War, Union, Confederate]