Eating Smoke: Fire in Urban America, 1800–1950

Essay on Sources

Essay on Sources The relative lack of scholarly research on firefighting, fire insurance, and even fire protection more generally presented an early problem as I conceived this study, forcing me to cross the boundaries that usually separate fields of study within history, and the disciplines more broadly. By contrast, as I conceptualized the project and cast about for historical records, I was surprised to find a wide, almost overwhelming, range of source materials in historical societies, public libraries, corporate headquarters, and other archives in the nearly dozen states I visited during the life of this project. This essay focuses on those primary and secondary sources that contributed most directly to this history of how firefighters and underwriters confronted the problem of fire. primary materials Primary source materials on firefighting can be found in several places, some off the routes normally traveled by historians. Many local historical societies possess materials on fire- fighting, especially volunteer fire companies in the nineteenth century. Additionally, fire departments , city archives, and specialized fire museums also collected materials on fire protection, and W. Fred Conway, Discovering America’s Fire Museums (1995) provides a comprehensive , though by no means complete, list of firefighting museums. Finally, professional firefighters and buffs often have collected firefighting materials and, even if they have not, they tend to know where records may be hidden. For Eating Smoke, the Thomas Collins Collection, St. Louis Veteran Volunteer Firemen’s Collection, Tiffany Collection, and Newspaper Clippings Files at the Missouri Historical Society contained records on volunteer companies and the transition to a professional department. The scrapbooks of a St. Louis fire chief, the Charles Swingley Papers, shed light on the firefighting at the turn of the twentieth century. At the Historical Society of Pennsylvania (HSP) the Samuel Hazard Papers, the Campbell Collection, and the Philadelphia Fire Companies, Record Books, 1758–1904 held information on volunteer fire companies; the Philadelphia Fire Department , Record Books, 1871–1935, and the autobiography of a firefighter and reformer, James Bryson Gilbert, “An Effort to Portray . . . the Manner [of ] the People of the Class to which I belonged Lived their Lives,” proved invaluable to understanding professional firefighting. The Bucks County Historical Society has an excellent Firefighting Collection, which includes ledgers from volunteer fire companies and the department’s management associations as well as an extensive collection of material culture, printed materials, and photographs . Municipal publications, reports, and pamphlets also offered significant insight into the development of fire protection. Especially valuable at the Missouri Historical Society were the Mayor’s Messages and Accompanying Documents, City of St. Louis (especially 1848–1865, 1872); Annual Report of the St. Louis Fire Department; Report of the Fire Departments of Cincinnati and St. Louis and the Use of Steam Fire Engines (1858). HSP, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the Free Library of Philadelphia also have numerous pamphlets, which offer valuable insights; especially important were: Annual Report of the Fire Marshal of Philadelphia (especially 1859–1875), Annual Report of the Committee of Legacies and Trusts of the Fire and Hose Establishment of the City of Philadelphia (1838); Statistics of Philadelphia Comprehending a Concise View of All the Public Institutions and the Fire Engine and Hose Companies of the City and County of Philadelphia, on the First of January, 1842 (1842); Report of a Committee , Appointed at a Meeting Held on Friday Evening, December 3rd, 1852, to Consider the Propriety of Organising a Paid Fire Department (1853); Report of the Committee Appointed to Devise a Plan for the Better Organization of the Fire Department (1853), Letters of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions, and the Marshal of Police, and Report of the Board of Trade (1853); Philadelphia Hose Company, Historical Sketches of the Formation and Founders of the Philadelphia Hose Company . . . (1854); H. C. Watson, Jerry Pratt’s Progress; or Adventures in the Hose House (1855); Report of the Special Committee of the Select and Common Council in Relation to the Fire Alarm and Police Telegraph, Presented 12 October 1854 (1854); Report of the Joint Special Committee of the Select and Common Councils on Steam Fire Engines (1854); Report of the Visiting Committee of the Board of Delegates of the Fire Association of Philadelphia, December 3, 1860 (1860); The Philadelphia Fire Marshal Almanac and Underwriters’ Advertiser, for the Year 1860 (1860). The St. Louis City Archives holds a wide range of materials related to municipal governance and the fire department, including departmental ledgers, expense...