Aurora Fire Museum gets to display 'cool toys' from Smithsonian

The Aurora Regional Fire Museum has gotten some new toys and Curator David Lewis can't wait to show them off this summer.

The museum has acquired a collection of 19 early firefighting items from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History reflecting the history of firefighting from the 1800s to 1920s. Lewis and his staff are preparing a temporary, yearlong exhibit featuring the acquisitions.

"This was a rare opportunity to add some spectacular pieces to our collection that represent firefighting and firefighters in the 19th and early 20th century" Lewis said. "But really, what it all boils down to is that we got some really cool new toys and we want to bring them out."

Especially significant, he said, is the fact that many of the items reflect the social aspects of firefighting in the mid- to late-1800s.

Items in the collection include a decorative fire helmet used for social functions and parades and highly detailed scale models of fire equipment.

"Early fire engines were icons of community pride," he said. "They were often decorated with elaborate paint schemes, wood carvings and even oil paintings of local or national heroes."

The museum does not have any of those engines in its collection but come summer, visitors will be able to view a 2-foot-tall model of a hand-pumped engine adorned with a miniature painting of Abraham Lincoln and a 44-inch model of a 19th-century ladder truck decked out with patriotic banners and a wood-carved American eagle.

Smithsonian spokeswoman Valeska Hilbig said all 19 items transferred to the Aurora Regional Fire Museum were originally part of the CIGNA Insurance Company's collection of about 5,000 firefighting and maritime items donated to the Smithsonian in 2005.

After a thorough inventory and review, Smithsonian curators identified a small number of duplicate objects and items that might pose unique care and conservation challenges.

"We just don't have the funding or the space to keep up with the collection anymore," Hilbig said. "So we set up a note on some national firefighting museum organizations' Web sites and got a great response. We've also had a relationship with the Aurora museum so we knew what they would need for their collection."

The Aurora Regional Fire Museum was among 10 institutions to receive a selection of firefighting items from the Smithsonian.

For more information about the Aurora Regional Fire Museum visit auroraregionalfiremuseum.org.