Nathaniel Currier
(27 March 1813 - 20 November 1888)
(5 March 1824 - 3 January 1895)
(1834 - 1907)
Currier and Ives was a successful American printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) and James Merritt Ives (1824-1895). Based in New York City from 1834-1907, the prolific firm produced prints from paintings by fine artists as black and white lithographs that were hand colored. Lithographic prints could be reproduced quickly and purchased inexpensively, and the firm called itself "the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints" and advertised its lithographs as "colored engravings for the people."
Currier's Early History
Nathaniel Currier was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27, 1813, the second of four children. His parents, Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, were distant cousins who lived a humble and spartan life. When Nathaniel was eight years old, tragedy struck. Nathaniel's father unexpectedly died leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family. In addition to their mother, Nathaniel and Lorenzo had to care for six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles. Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family, and at fifteen, he started what would become a lifelong career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton. In 1833, at twenty years of age, he moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M. E. D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer. Currier's early lithographs were issued under the name of Stodart & Currier, a result of the partnership he created in 1834, with a local New York printmaker named Stodart. The two men specialized in "job" printing and made a variety of print products, including music manuscripts. Dissatisfied with the poor economic return of their business venture, Currier ended the partnership in 1835, and set up shop alone, working as "N. Currier, Lithographer" until 1856. In 1835, he created a lithograph that illustrated a fire sweeping through New York City's business district. The print of the Merchant's Exchange sold thousands of copies in four days. Realizing that there was a market for current news, Currier turned out several more disaster prints and other inexpensive lithographs that illustrated local and national events, such as "Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O’clock on the Morning of May 15, 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives." He quickly gained a reputation as an accomplished lithographer.
In 1840, he produced "Awful Conflagration of the Steam Boat Lexington", which was so successful that he was given a weekly insert in New York Sun. In this year, Currier's firm began to shift its focus from job printing to independent print publishing.
The Partnership with Ives:
The name Currier & Ives first appeared in 1857, when Currier invited James Merritt Ives (1824-1895), the company's bookkeeper and accountant, to become his partner. James Merritt Ives, who was born on March 5, 1824 in New York City, married Caroline Clark in 1852. She was the sister-in-law of Nathaniel's brother, Charles Currier, and it was Charles who recommended James Ives to his brother. Nathaniel Currier soon noticed Ives's dedication to his business and his artistic knowledge and insight into what the public wanted. The younger man quickly became the general manager of the firm, handling the financial side of the business by modernizing the bookkeeping, reorganizing inventory, and streamlining the print process. Ives also helped Currier interview potential artists and craftsmen. The younger man had a flair for gauging popular interests and aided in selecting the images the firm would publish and expanding the firm's range to include political satire, and sentimental scenes such as sleigh rides in the country and steamboat races. In 1857, Currier made Ives a full partner.
The Firm:
James E. Buttersworth (1817-1894)
Charles Parsons Knight (1829-1897)
George Inness (1825-1894)
Thomas Nast (1840-1902)
C.H. Moore (1840-1930)
Thomas Worth (1834-1917)
John Cameron (1830-1876) [Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.], and
Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
The stars of the firm were: Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait (1819-1905), who specialized in sporting scenes;
Louis Maurer (1832-1932), who executed genre scenes;
George Henry Durrie (1820-1863), who supplied winter scenes; and
Fanny Palmer (1812-1876), who liked to do picturesque panoramas of the American landscape, and who was the first woman in the United States to make her living as a full-time artist.
Currier died in 1888. Ives remained active in the firm until his death in 1895. Both Currier's and Ives's sons followed their fathers in the business, which was eventually liquidated in 1907. Because of improvements in offset printing and photoengraving, the public demand for lithographs had gradually diminished.
Nathaniel Currier, (March 27, 1813-November 20, 1888), born in Roxbury, Mass., was apprenticed in his teens to a Boston lithographic firm. He established his own lithography business in New York City in 1835. The lithographer James Merritt Ives, born in New York City, (March 5, 1824 – January 3, 1895), entered into partnership with Currier in 1857. Currier retired in 1888, Ives a few years later; but the firm was carried on by their sons and flourished until 1907.
Lithography had begun in America in the 1820s. It was quicker and less expensive than engraving, hence the remarkable success of the firm of Currier and Ives. Soon after setting up business they produced extensive folios, usually based on paintings. Some of the work was crude, but the quality varied considerably. The star artists of the firm were Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, who specialized in sporting scenes; Louis Maurer, who executed genre scenes; George H. Durrie, who supplied winter scenes, and Fanny Palmer, who liked to do picturesque panoramas of the American landscape.
So well known did Currier and Ives become that it was common to refer to any large mixed batch of prints as Currier and Ives prints. The firm was astoundingly prolific and produced prints on practically every aspect of the American scene. In the 1870s, they issued four catalogs featuring 2800 subject titles.
Currier and Ives sometimes focused on current events. (In 1840, Currier produced what may have been the first illustrated "extra" in history when he depicted scenes of the fire that had broken out that year aboard the steamship Lexington in Long Island Sound.) Political cartoons and banners were commonly produced, like the Presidential Fishing Party of 1848, showing the candidates with fishing poles trying to hook fish on which names of various states are inscribed.
Historical prints were another field, and copies from the historical paintings of John Trumbull were especially popular. "he Civil War print 'Battle of Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862", shows the first balloon ever used for warfare observation. Sentimental prints included one showing a married couple walking along a riverbank and another showing a girl taking care of her little sister. There were also prints for children, such as "Robinson Crusoe and His Pets" and "Noah's Ark"; country and pioneer home scenes, which included "Early Winter", a beautiful scene of people skating on a frozen pond before a snow-covered country cottage; and lithographed sheet music. Still other categories were Mississippi River prints, including "On the Mississippi Loading Cotton" and "Midnight Race on the Mississippi"; railroad prints that sometimes featured minute descriptions of trains, as in "Lightning Express" Trains Leaving the Junction; and home prints, which were produced in especially large quantities.
Currier and Ives avoided controversial subjects, although there was at least one print showing the branding of slaves prior to embarkation from Africa. Prints of sporting events focused on prize fights (like the 1835, match between John C. Heeman and the English champion Tom Sayers), boat races, and even, in the early stages of its development, baseball. As America expanded, so did the demand for Currier and Ives prints. Today they provide a vivid picture of daily life in 19th-century America.
References & External links:
Currier and Ives Civil War lithographs
Known railroad related lithographs of Currier and Ives
Currier and Ives: Perspectives on America, American Public Television [aptonline.org]
Wikipedia
The Henry Ford Collections" Hfmgv.org
"The History of Currier & Ives"
The Currier and Ives Foundation, "The history of Currier & Ives"
"
The Enduring Appeal of Currier and Ives Prints"
"Currier and Ives: An American Panorama"
Biography at answers.com
"The Old Print Shop"
Encyclopædia Britannica
"
Ohio University News and Information" [Ohio.edu]
Currier and Ives: Popular Masters of 19th Century Lithography" [nytimes.com]
CURRIER & IVES: Printmakers to the People,
The Philadelphia Print Shop [philaprintshop.com]
The Long Island Museum of American Art, History and Carriages,
Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People
The Columbia Encyclopedia
" Currier and Ives Lithographic Value Guides" [Currierprints.com]
Civil War Lithographs [Commons.wikimedia.org]
Known Railroad-Related Lithographs [coxrail.com]
High Water in the Mississippi, Fanny Palmer
Online Gallery of Currier & Ives Prints
A Gallery of Currier and Ives Lithographs
Library of Congress
Behind the Scenes: The Artists Who Worked for Currier and Ives
Currier and Ives Tradecards
Currier and Ives, Perspectives on America
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Smithsonian Archives of American Art
Archives of American Artworks | Smithsonian Institution
Napoleon Sarony (182-1896), American Lithographer and Photographer.
View artist's work: Currier & Ives
google.com [new window view]
View work: Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888)
google.com [new window view]
James Merritt Ives [avictorian.com]
Wikipedia.org [new window view]
View work: James Merritt Ives (1824-1895)
google.com [new window view]
