NYC Fire Museum

Last Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the NYC Fire Museum on Spring Street. The building was an actual firehouse with two floors of exhibits and a third floor party space. It is very popular for kid's birthday parties and there was one going on on Saturday.

I headed up to the second floor. There were wonderful vehicles and fire-fighting equipment on display from back in the 1800s and early 1900s. A number of them had signs with information about where and when they were manufactured and where they were used. This hand-pulled hose real was so elaborate and I loved the tiger insignia on the sides. So here is Tiger Hose Company No. 8.

There were small display cases containing all sorts of memorabilia like fire hats, shields, replicas of engines, and other things. My friend, Shawne happened to be sketching right in front of me, leaning against a display of shields. I thought she would only be there for a few minutes so I started with a sketch of her and slowly added some of the surrounding cases. She ended up to be still standing there when I was finished with the whole sketch.

I headed back down to the first floor and found a few friends sketching the historic engines. I wasn't sure I wanted to do that, but I noticed there were several mannikins in full gear so I got started on a sketch of one. I really liked the way it came out in ink and wasn't sure if I should add color...but I did and I'm happy with how it came out.

I was hoping I would have time to do another sketch of a fireman on the back of one of the trucks, but our show and tell started about midway thru my sketch, so I didn't get to finish. I did take a photo so maybe I will finish it yet...but it isn't as exciting as sketching it on location.