Flesh and Stone

THIS PHOTOGRAPH, from the Philadelphia City Archives, is marked “Fireman’s Memorial, 3rd and Girard, 1910.” Mr. John Maass, who sent it to us, is Information Officer for that city and he reports that there is no such memorial at 3rd and Girard or anywhere else in Philadelphia. But he did find a newspaper account of a terrible fire that raged in a factory in that neighborhood on the night of December 21, 1910. The next day the building collapsed, and thirteen firemen and one policeman were killed. Mr. Maass surmises that the picture was made to serve as a model for a sculptor or stonecutter, and he’s probably right. The allegory seems plain enough: Grief for a Fallen Comrade and the Hope of a Better World on High.

WE CONTINUE to ask our readers to send unusual and previously unpublished old photographs to Carla Davidson at American Heritage Publishing Co., 10 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10020. Please send a copy of any irreplaceable material, include return postage, and do not mail glass negatives. AMERICAN HERITAGE will pay $50.00 for each one that is run.