On this day, December 5th, 1876, the Brooklyn Theater, on the corner of Washington and Johnson Streets caught fire. This was a terrible tragedy, and close to 300 people lost their lives. You can read more about that tragedy on our The Brooklyn Theater Fire of December 1876: a community's response post.
Instead, today's post is inspired by J.W. Turner, singer/songwriter, who took that tragedy and turned it into...art? Or profit? Or both? Todays Photo of the Week is a cover of sheet music entitled "Mid Flame and Smoke: a descriptive song of the burning of the Brooklyn Theater." J.W. Turner wrote it for piano and voice and it was published in 1876 by Oliver Ditson & Co. The illustrator (who created some fantastic lettering on this one) is listed as J.H. Bufford's Sons Lith. 141 Franklin St. Boston, MA. Bufford's sons took over their father's business and moved into that office in 1879.
The lyrics, which are pretty dark, are as follows:
It was a dreadful and fearful night
as through the flame and smoke they frantic fled
Struggling on, alas, they perish,
One by one they piteous cry,
Sad and dreary, oh what an anguish
Oh what emotion and despair,
As in death they sink and languish
Bright ones beautiful fall and die
The flames and smoke in fury roll
Hear’st thou the moan of that distracted soul?
Save! Oh save me! Trembling dying
Sad and mournful e’er they died
From the fire-y gulf he bears them
Safely in their pain and fright
He has rescued, he has saved them
From a dreadful fall and die
They whom kindred love and cherish
Hear their wild and piteous cry
Interested in seeing more photos from CBH’s collections? Visit our online image gallery, which includes a selection of our images, or the digital collections portal at Brooklyn Public Library. We look forward to inviting you to CBH in the future to research in our entire collection of images, archives, maps, and special collections. In the meantime, please visit our resources page to search our collections. Questions? Our reference staff is available to help with your research! You can reach us at cbhreference@bklynlibrary.org.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
The Brooklyn Theatre fire, of
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