2-889-269 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Fireworks at the Merchant Seamen's Orphan Asylum, Bow-Road [in London], on Tuesday, 1850. '...the Committee of this excellent Charity...provided for the subscribers and friends of the Institution a most brilliant private display of fireworks, which brought together a galaxy of fashion and beauty...The fireworks, by Darby, were both novel and exceedingly appropriate to the occasion. Among those we noticed in particular, was a ship represented in lines of fire, in full rig, symbolical of Commerce; and another device was a clever transparency of a shipwreck, with the motto in fireworks (as it were, coming from the sufferers) of "God protect our Orphans." The grounds were illuminated with variegated lamps; and...coloured fires were burnt occasionally. The children witnessed the display; and, in their healthy countenances, evidenced the delight they experienced'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.