Doylestown Museum To Host Firefighting Exhibit

Throughout the 1800’s, destructive fires raged across the streets of Philadelphia and major cities around the country, pillaging $200 million worth of property altogether. Fire alarms incurred terror and panic in citizens, and firefighters stood as the lone wall between society and the fickle tinder of monstrous conflagrations.

Doylestown’s Mercer Museum will bring this dramatic era alive for the public to see beginning April 25 when they launch their series: “To Save Our Fellow Citizens: Volunteer Firefighting, 1800-1875.”

The collection will display relics and historical items like a hand-powered engine and hose carriage, fire helmets, tools, badges, trumpets, prints, paintings, manuscripts, and photographs.

“We are pleased to put our collection of Philadelphia’s firefighting history on display to the public,” said Mercer Museum Executive Director, Doug Dolan. “Many of the artifacts were donated to the museum in 1919 by the Volunteer Firemen’s Association of Philadelphia, and some are on exhibit for the first time in several decades. The firefighting profession still captures the imagination today of the young and old.”

There will also be activities and games for children.

The event will run until September 7.