Fire Bucket, "J.M. Prince 1830"
date: label: date made
content: 1830
name: label: maker
content: unknown
notes: label: Description
content: This 1830 bucket, which belonged to J.M. Prince, is a good example of an ordinary bucket that would have belonged to an individual citizen. Having fire equipment supplied by private citizens was not without its disadvantages. The most common problem was buckets being used for purposes other than firefighting, for example, as mop buckets or as storage receptacles. There is one story of a fire bucket being used to store beans—and the beans then accidentally being emptied into an engine in the chaos of a fire. Some buckets were made with rounded or conical bottoms, so that they could not lay flat on the floor and be used as mop buckets. The development of professional fire departments in the second half of the nineteenth century eliminated such problems by centralizing authority over the hazard of fire.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: classified
content: Fire Fighting
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Fire Fighting and Law Enforcement
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of CIGNA Museum and Art Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2005.0233.0248
label: accession number
content: 2005.0233
label: catalog number
content: 2005.0233.0248
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bucket, fire
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: leather (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 1/4 in x 8 in; 31.115 cm x 20.32 cm