CURRIER & IVES
PRINTMAKERS TO THE PEOPLE

HISTORY OF THE FIRM

Thanks to Christopher W. Lane, Donald Cresswell, and Carolyn Cades of the Philadelphia Print Shop for allowing AHPCS to adapt some of their material on Currier & Ives for use on this site.

Everyone has heard of a "Currier & Ives print," but many do not know what this term means. "Currier & Ives" was the name used by a New York printmaking firm from 1857 until 1907. This business had been in operation since 1834, first as Stodart & Currier (1834) and then as N. Currier (1835 to 1856). Though the name changed, all the prints produced by this firm are usually referred to as "Currier & Ives prints."

Nathaniel Currier was a printmaker and businessman; James Ives started as the firm's bookkeeper in 1852 and five years later became Currier's partner. Neither was an artist, so though all Currier & Ives prints were published by the partners, they were drawn and lithographed by other persons. Nathaniel Currier retired in 1880 and died in 1888 and James Ives died in 1895. The firm, under the direction of their sons, Edward West Currier and Chauncey Ives, carried on until 1907.

The Currier & Ives firm was in the business of producing lithographed prints intended to be sold to the general public for framing and display in the home or at work. Calling themselves "Printmakers to the People," they provided for the American public a pictorial history of their country's growth from an agricultural society to an industrialized one. For nearly three quarters of a century the firm provided "Colored Engravings for the People" and in the process became the visual raconteurs of nineteenth-century America.

The firm produced a variety of images, including pictures of newsworthy events and prints depicting every subject relating to American life: sports, games, home life, religion, children, hunting, fishing, entertainment, trains, ships, views of cities, and so forth. Currier & Ives used all sorts of sources for their prints, including staff artists who are unknown today, as well as a group of more famous artists such as Louis Maurer, Thomas Worth, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Frances ('Fanny') Flora Bond Palmer, George H. Durrie, Napoleon Sarony, Charles Parsons, and J. E. Butterworth. Currier & Ives were also not above borrowing images from other print publishers, both American and European. These prints were sold either directly from Currier & Ives' shop or through other printsellers around the country.

Beginning in 1930, as complete as possible a listing of known Currier & Ives prints was compiled and published by Frederic A. Conningham, entitled Currier & Ives Prints. An Illustrated Check List. The first edition listed about 5,700 different titles and by the time the last edition was issued in 1983, the list had grown to almost 7,000. It is to this "Conningham" list that most collectors and dealers refer when citing a Currier & Ives print, the number often being given as, e.g., "C:1458." An equally impressive and even more comprehensive listing of prints was compiled and published by Gale Research, but this massive two volume set is not as often used as the more practically sized Conningham. Including the Gale listing, the number of recorded Currier & Ives prints is now over 7,500 different titles! Still, new titles turn up from time to time.  The American Historical Print Collectors Society maintains a list of Currier & Ives prints not listed in Conningham or Gale.

Most Currier & Ives prints are hand colored lithographs, but Currier & Ives did issue some of uncolored prints and also a number of chromolithographs. The prints were intended for a mass market, so they were sold inexpensively. The smaller prints sold for about 20 cents each and the larger ones for between $1 and $3. The smaller and less expensive prints were usually colored by a group of young women, each applying a different color, and images with large runs were often colored using stencils. The larger and more expensive prints generally were colored individually by skilled colorists.

Though the firm did not issue all their prints in standard sizes, the prints are usually grouped into three basic categories.

• Small folio prints are approximately 8" by 12 1/2"
• medium folio are approximately 10"-14" by 14"-20"
• large folio are anything over about 14" by 20."

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Last updated June 02, 2006