CURRIER, NATHANIEL; AND IVES, JAMES MERRITT

(respectively, b. March 27, 1813, Roxbury, Mass., U.S.d. Nov. 20, 1888, New York City; b. March 5, 1824, New York Cityd. Jan. 3, 1895, Rye, N.Y.), lithographers whose prints were among the most popular wall hangings in 19th-century America. After apprenticeships in Boston and Philadelphia, Currier set up business in New York City in 1834. He hired Ives as his bookkeeper in 1852 and made him a partner in 1857, creating the firm of Currier & Ives, which lasted, under the management of their sons, until 1907. In an era before news photography, Currier met the public's demand for graphic presentation of recent events. In 1835 he printed a lithograph, The Ruins of the Merchants' Exchange, four days after the building burned, and in 1840, three days after the event, he issued a coloured print of a steamship burning on Long Island Sound. In partnership with Ives, who had a flair for gauging popular interests, he expanded his range from depictions of disasters to political satire and other topical subjects, as well as dramatic or slightly sentimentalized scenes such as steamboat races, boxing matches, sleigh rides in the country, and fashionable soirees. Touting themselves as Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures, Currier and Ives sold prints at 5 cents to $3, depending on the size. They sold retail as well as wholesale, establishing outlets in cities across the country and in London. Between 1840 and 1890 the firm published more than 7,000 titles. While never pretending artistic greatness, Currier & Ives insisted on fine craftmanship and the best lithographic materials. Most designs were done by house staff; others were commissioned by young artists such as Louis Maurer, Thomas Worth, and Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait. As the firm was not equipped for chromolithography, prints were hand-coloured by a dozen or more women in assembly-line fashion, one colour to a woman. Colours were clear and simple, drawing bold and direct. Rendered obsolete by automation and the photograph, Currier & Ives prints became valuable records of the manners of a vigorous, unsophisticated nation.