Currier and Ives

Partnership of US printmakers Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) and J Merritt Ives (1824–1895). They produced many series of hand-coloured lithographs in New York. Topical events, racing, hunting, yachting, Mississippi steamboats, American Indians, and so on provided the subjects. They are a rich mine of social history.

Currier was a lithographer who produced his first topical print 1835 and took Ives as his partner 1850. The prints carried their joint imprint after 1857. A number of specialists were employed in the execution of the work.