Firefighting in a 19^th century urban environment required a special kind of courage, what with haphazard if any building codes, limited protective gear, and primitive equipment. It’s no wonder that Ellsworth recruited his Civil War regiment of zouaves among New York City’s fire companies. This 2/3 length ambrotype shows a man wearing a low-crown “wheel cap” and very typical double-breasted fireman’s shirt bearing a large fire company number “1” in the center of his chest. The shirt was carefully colored red by the photographer, which has faded to a reddish brown, but did not cover up any details. His collar, cuffs and shirt plastron were not colored and are dark, likely blue or black in person. He wears a fireman’s parade belt, showing some thin remnants of red, with “ASSISTANT” appearing backwards, like the “1,” due to lateral reversal in the ambrotype image process. The belt is slightly open, revealing the narrower inner belt tab that actually fastened the outer belt of sewn and painted leather. The belt often carried the fire company’s nickname, but in this case it likely indicates the subject’s rank, Assistant Chief, we presume.

The condition is very good, just scattered small age spotting and a band of solarization around the perimeter of the image, next to the mat opening, that only shadows his hand at the right and his elbow at the left and not the rest of the figure. He is posed with one hand on hip and the other likely resting against a low table out of view on the right. He has obviously dressed for the occasion and sports a white collar and neatly tied bowtie above his shirt front. We’d say he has a look of quiet confidence, which is something we’d value in an emergency-responder.

The image is glassed, matted and cased in a gilt blindstamped leatherette case embossed with geometric and floral motifs, with good hinge and just a couple of edge rubs. The red velvet facing pad shows some wear at the middle of an impressed urn and floral scroll design, with the color shifting a bit toward purple. We’d date it mid to late 1850s, possibly the very early 1860s.  [sr][ph:L]

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