A nearly horse-drawn steam-powered fire engine built by Watts P. Corey is the subject of this sharp cabinet card by Stanton, Photographer, of Amsterdam, New York, the inscription on the reverse reading "Engine made by Watts P. Corey" in a period hand. Amsterdam, New York was an active industrial center in the 1870s and 1880s, and this image records a local builder's pride in a finely finished piece of mechanical work, photographed in what appears to be a wood-sided storage building or carriage house.

The fire engine i has four large spoked iron-rimmed wheels, a vertical cylindrical boiler with a tall smoke stack, elaborate exposed valves and pipe fittings at the center, a pressure gauge. The mechanical complexity visible includes cylinder housings, connecting rods, and valve gear typical of portable steam engines of the 1870s used for agricultural threshing, sawmilling, or light industrial work.

The reverse bears the stamp of Stanton, Photographer, Amsterdam, N.Y. in a double-circle dotted border format. A pencil notation reads "0165" at the upper right.