Conningham (1930) 2896; Conningham (1970) 3518. First printing, before publisher’s signature changed from “N.Currier” to “Currier & Ives.” Signed on stone lower right: “L Maurer”; inscribed below image: “L. Maurer, Del. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1854 by N. Currier, in the Clerk’s office of the District Court of the Southern District of N.Y. Lith. By N.Currier / The Life of a Fireman. / The Night Alarm. – “Start her lively boys.” / New York, Published by N. Currier, 152 Nassau Street”. A fine impression in fine condition aside from minor tears to upper left and bottom corners, and expertly repaired tears and faint creases along upper and lower edges of margins, with margins measuring around 1 inch.
Sara Duke at the Library of Congress notes: “In ‘Life of a Fireman: The Night Alarm-Start Her Lively Boys’ Maurer depicts Excelsior Company No. 2 of 21 Henry Street, leaving the fire station. At left, Nathaniel Currier runs to join his compatriots. Thirteen volunteers move the pumper out of the firehouse in the middle of the night, some dressed in firefighting gear, others in the civilian clothes that they put on when they heeded the alarm.”
In the book “Currier & Ives: Printmakers to the American People” Harry T. Peters comments: “I think, from talking to him, that he feels that his most important work in the employ of Currier & Ives was the series ‘Life of a Fireman.” (p. 68) Furthermore, two plates from the series “The Life of a Fireman” were included among the “The Best Fifty”.
