Portrayed The Romance Of America

By Jan Howard

Currier & Ives showed America the way people of the 19th Century wanted to see it. The prominent lithographers, whose motto was “Printmakers to the American People,” produced wonderful images that everyone could afford to own.

Lithography was a less expensive process than engraving, and made art available to people that otherwise could not afford it.

Copies of Currier & Ives’ prints are still popular today and adorn calendars, date books, and greeting cards, appearing often on Christmas cards.

Gordon Williams, a retired history teacher with a background in art history, discussed “Currier & Ives: Interpreters of the American Dream” and showed slides of their popular lithographs during a program February 12 sponsored by the Newtown Historical Society at the C.H. Booth Library.

It was a nostalgic trip back in time, to peaceful rural scenes, historic events and people, and romantic themes.

Just as we use the brand name Kleenex to refer to tissues today, the name Currier & Ives was synonymous with lithography, Mr Williams said.

“In the 1870s, they had 2,800 prints in their catalog,” he said. “Some are still available today.” But the price is a little different than the four to 25 cents that might have been paid in the 1800s. Today, a large original Currier & Ives American folk art print might sell for as much as $10,000, he said.

Nathaniel Currier published his first lithograph in 1835. Mr Williams said his most successful print was of the fire and destruction of the steamship Lexington in Long Island Sound in 1840.

“He sketched it, prepared a stone, and printed it. It was on the market in three days,” Mr Williams said. “It put him in the limelight. The print was very successful.”

James Merrit Ives later joined Mr Currier as the company’s first bookkeeper. This was an area in which Mr Currier was not strong, Mr Williams noted. Mr Ives was also outgoing and very persuasive. His specialty was being clever with catchy titles for the prints. “He was strong in that direction,” he said. “He was also very good at visualizing.” He could tell whether a proposed subject for a print would be too complicated or simple to reproduce.

Mr Ives became a full partner in 1882 before Mr Currier retired. The factory closed in 1907.

The lithographic process was invented in Bavaria in 1799, and spread to America by 1819. It was a popular medium for scenes, sentimental subjects, and pictorial current events.

The Lithographic     Process

Lithography consisted of a crayon drawing on a limestone block that was then inked and put in water. The ink would adhere to the greased part, and the print would be made from that.

“It was quite a good way of doing it,” Mr Williams said. “If they thought it would be popular, they would print what they would need and preserve the stone.” If it was a better quality print, they might decide to have a limited edition, in which case they would destroy the stone image and regrind the stone for a new surface.

Currier & Ives hired the finest artists to create the original paintings, such as Louis Maurer, George Catlin, George Drury, and cartoonist Thomas Nast. The artists were often commissioned to draw directly on the stone as well, the first time artists were able to control their work in preparation for publication. “The artists had a huge say in how their work was presented,” Mr Williams said.

Famous Gilbert Stuart paintings of George Washington and other founding fathers were reproduced as prints, he said.

Most of the prints were colored by hand in an assembly line process, mostly by women, who each added a color as the print moved down the line, Mr Williams said. “They might have 12 or more women doing particular things to the print, depending on the number of colors.”

There might be simple prints with only five colors, or more complicated ones that required ten colors. After the prints were dry, they were treated to keep the colors from running.

Currier & Ives published from 7,000 to 8,000 images, Mr Williams said. “They were considered to be the foremost lithographers in America. They were geniuses at marketing.” The lithographs, he said, were sometimes peddled door to door.

While individual lithographs might sell for four to 25 cents, folios, such as sporting events, might contain four to eight prints and be more expensive. “Some were $3, which was a lot of money in those days,” Mr Williams said.

  Some of the lithographs were very sentimental; others would be construed today as racist. Themes included sporting events, current events, transportation scenes, winter scenes, and pastoral scenes of rural America, such as farms, cottages, and remote country inns.

No Controversial Topics

Currier & Ives avoided controversial topics, Mr Williams said. A print of George Washington with a glass of wine in his hand brought complaints, and the print was dropped. There was also criticism of a print of slaves being branded in Africa before being brought to the United States. “People were very opposed to this,” he said. “The print was not continued.”

Plantation prints portrayed plantation families, with slaves working in the fields. They always depicted the plantation owners as kind and generous and the slaves not working hard, Mr Williams said. “You never saw whips or overseers. There was not a lot of criticism of this portrayal.”

Some Currier & Ives prints, such as those of African Americans at play, being happy, and singing and dancing, promoted stereotyping of Black Americans. “Modern people today would resent this, but it wouldn’t have been controversial back then,” Mr Williams said

Other lithographs featured historical figures, such as of George Washington being appointed commander-in-chief, and events, such as the Chicago fire and the collision and fire that resulted when two American whalers collided in 1880.

People were fascinated with a print of an albino family, Mr Williams said. “The print became very popular.”

Deathbed scenes, “with lots of final words,” were popular, he said. “The 19th Century really liked this.”

Sentimental and home prints were very popular. “Many people bought them,” he said. Hollywood costume designers often look at Currier & Ives for research because the drawings of clothing of the era were very accurately represented. The emphasis of these prints was on chivalry and romantic love.

One, named “Happy Hours,” depicts a handsome husband, beautiful wife, and four lovely children. “They were what we wanted to be,” Mr Williams noted.

Another, entitled “Love Letters,” shows a lovely lady with a letter. “She’s not crying, so it’s not a Dear John letter,” he said. “But she looks melancholy. One of the tenets of romanticism was being happily sad.”

Some Works                      For Children

Currier & Ives created some works for children, which were also very popular, Mr Williams said.

Scenic views and panoramas, such as those created by the Hudson River School, were much loved, he said. “It was part of the Romantic Movement.” Ordinary people couldn’t afford works by the Hudson River School, but they could afford Currier & Ives.

“One of the romantic themes is nature,” Mr Williams said. “Mother Nature is wonderful.” It inspired prints of maple sugaring and summer flowers and butterflies.

Currier & Ives were also sports people, Mr Williams said. There are hunting and fishing scenes. “They liked prizefights, boat races, and harness racing.” Both men often attended Sunday morning baseball games.

The 1850s were an era of great changes in transportation, which is reflected in Currier & Ives prints of clipper ships and the steam ships that replaced them and of railroads with people going west. “The west was a big issue in 1844 because of the Gold Rush,” Mr Williams said. “Currier & Ives were important in promoting that.”

Currier & Ives prints were popular because they were affordable, he said.

“They held up a full length mirror to Americans. They understood our interests. They reflected us and gave us back to us. They gave us what we wanted to see,” he said.

“We wanted to believe that all men were brave and all women virtuous,” Mr Williams said. “Currier and Ives preserved the romance of America.”