O umundurowaniu Straży ogniowej ochotniczej miasta Krakowa w latach 1865–1918

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ON THE UNIFORMS OF THE VOLUNTEER FIRE BRIGADE IN KRAKÓW IN THE YEARS 1865–1918

For the fireman, uniform was an indispensable element of his profession. Firefighters’ uniforms underwent diverse modifications throughout the years. Their form changed repeatedly. The general tendencies in that respect applied also to the uniforms of the volunteer fire brigade in Kraków, the first ever in its category on the Polish territory. With the establishment of the unit, it was a must for its members to have their distinctive uniforms. What we now know about the oldest uniform of Kraków’s volunteer firefighters is based mostly on a drawing featured in Tygodnik Ilustrowany [An Illustrated Weekly] in 1874 (issue 350, page 169). The illustration supplemented a brief article titled “The Kraków Types. The Original Volunteer Fire Service in Kraków.” Here is how its undisclosed author described the original uniform of the volunteer firefighters in Kraków: “The earliest firemen’s uniform was extremely simple and modest; it consisted of a jacket and trousers made of unbleached linen and a four-cornered peaked cap made of oilskin, with a ferrule across the rim of the peak and a liking of St Florian at the front.” The drawing attached to the article shows a young man wearing such a uniform. The said article has permitted an identification of photographs featuring firemen in the original uniforms of the volunteer fire brigade in Kraków. Apart from that, the text provides information on a change in the Kraków volunteer firefighters’ uniforms that took place in the early 1870s, when the four-cornered caps were replaced with fire helmets with characteristic protective crests. The written sources that have survived, namely uniform guidelines issued by the firemen’s union authorities in Galicia, suggest that the uniforms of the fire brigade in Kraków changed two more times before 1918. Unfortunately, the modifications have not been confirmed by the available iconography. The outline of the history of the volunteer firemen’s uniforms in Kraków during the Austrian rule presented in the article obviously does not exhaust the topic. However, it hopefully offers at least a minor contribution to presenting this part of the history of the fire brigades in Kraków.