Currier and Ives was an American firm that specialized in publishing lithographs. The company flourished in the middle and late 1800’s, producing more than 7,000 images. The lithographs provided a broad view of American life, showing fashions of the time in sports, clothing, and transportation. The firm also published images of fires, shipwrecks, and historical events, and portraits of celebrities. The prints were originally produced at modest cost and were widely used for interior decoration and for illustrations. Today, many of the images have become rare, highly prized, and valuable.
Nathaniel Currier
(1813-1888) was born on March 27, 1813, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He served as an apprentice in a Boston lithography shop before establishing his business in New York City. He issued his first prints in 1835. Currier died on Nov. 20, 1888.
James Merritt Ives
(1824-1895), Currier’s brother-in-law, served first as the bookkeeper and later as an artist and the art director for the firm. After 1857, all the prints published by the firm carried the joint name. Currier retired from the company in 1880, and Ives carried on the business with Nathaniel’s son, Edward West Currier. Ives was born on March 5, 1824, in New York City. He died on Jan. 3, 1895. The firm remained in business until 1907.
