Fire Bucket, "N. K. Sargent"
From the collection of National Museum of American History. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
This fire bucket is identical to G45. Both are painted green and labeled with the name of the owner, N. K. Sargent, and the year, 1841. They are numbered No. 1 and No. 2 respectively. Buckets were painted bright colors and marked with the owner’s name so that, in the confusion following a fire, they would be easily recognizable. While inevitably some buckets would be lost or stolen after a fire had been extinguished, such labeling increased the likelihood that buckets would be retrieved and taken home by their proper owner. Sargent possessed two buckets, as was often required by local law; buckets would frequently be purchased in pairs. Numbering his buckets provided an obvious distinction between the two, which would have been useful should one have been lost or stolen during a fire.
National Museum of American History’s own description
