American Historical Ephemera & Photography

7 1/8 x 4 in. boudoir photograph on cardstock mount (toning, light surface soil and wear to edges, mount with several pinholes, soiling, and wear to edges and corners). Verso features Jennings' "Views in Arizona" imprint with blank fields for title and image number, accomplished in manuscript: "'Dude' Hose Co / 'Ready to Start' July 4th 1891." Additional inscriptions and stamps, likely modern, to verso. Mount recto bears an inscribed "8" to lower left corner.

11 male subjects stand in rows in front of a hose reel, most holding onto the rope and one holding one of the wheels, all wearing shirts with the number "2" boldly displayed at center. 

Prescott's first water system was constructed in 1884, and that same year the town's first volunteer fire department was created. Different hose companies formed according to social identity or career. The "Tough" Hose Company No. 1, for example, was made up of mostly saloon men, gamblers, and Whiskey Row dealers. The "Dude" Hose Company No. 2 consisted of largely bankers, storeowners, and clerks. There were four companies all together, and rivalry was rampant until 1954 when the companies merged together under the name, Prescott Fire Department.