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Trimount in 1630
Samuel L. Gerry (1813–91) and James Burt (1814–52)
Oil on wood panel (8 x 13 1/2 in.)
Courtesy of Revolutionary Spaces, gift of Mrs. John G. Low
1888.0053.001
Gerry and Burt produced a pair of fire engine panels for Boston Fire Engine Number 15: this one and its companion piece, View of Boston from the Northeast. The two scenic panels, picturing Boston at different times, decorated the sides of a hand-pumped fire engine. Such equipment was sometimes ornamented with decorative panels and striping like those seen on coaches. This painting shows Boston as it appeared to the earliest settlers from the waterfront, with its three hills (hence the name Trimount), namely Beacon Hill, Pemberton Hill, and Mount Vernon.
