Currier and Ives

Currier & Ives

1857 - 1907

Explore selected works

The image shows a bird's-eye view of Washington, D.C., looking north from the Potomac River. The point of view is elevated, offering a comprehensive overview of the city layout and landmarks. The U.S. Capitol is seen on the right with its dome, while the Washington Monument stands out on the left. The rendering technique resembles a detailed lithograph with precise brushstrokes, capturing the city's architecture. The color palette includes earthy tones for the landscape and warm tones for the urban terrain, with the Potomac depicted in blues and grays. The city grid, roads, buildings, and greenery are intricately detailed, showcasing the vibrant city in a historical context.
Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, The City of Washington: Bird's-Eye View from the Potomac—Looking North, 1892, color lithograph on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Mary E. Maxwell Fund, 1953), 2015.19.778

The City of Washington: Bird's-Eye View from the Potomac—Looking North

Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1892 · color lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.778

This print shows a large bridge over a wide river, seen from a slightly elevated view. The tall stone pillars and suspension cables of the bridge take up most of the upper half of the print. Below them, a cityscape is visible along the horizon to the right. Closer to us, sailboats and larger boats with smokestacks cross the light blue water. In the bottom left corner, the tops of buildings from the near side of the river are visible, with tiny depictions of people, horses, and carriages on the street far below. The sky is light blue at the top of the print, fading into white toward the horizon.
Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, The Great East River Suspension Bridge: Connecting the Cities of New York and Brooklyn, 1881, hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Mary E. Maxwell Fund, 1952), 2015.19.770

The Great East River Suspension Bridge: Connecting the Cities of New York and Brooklyn

Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1881 · hand-colored lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2015.19.770

Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, Broadway, New York: From the Western Union Telegraph Building Looking North, 1875, hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.161

Broadway, New York: From the Western Union Telegraph Building Looking North

Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1875 · hand-colored lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.161

The image shows a panoramic view of New York Harbor from an overhead perspective. The horizon is in the upper third of the image, revealing several ships along the harbor. The artwork is a detailed lithograph depicting ships with sails, flags, and rigging. The color palette includes soft blues for the water and sky, and hints of cream, brown, red, and blue in the sails, flags, and rowers' shirts. In the foreground, rowers in red and blue shirts are seen paddling in long boats. Further back are larger sailing ships and steamships with multiple masts adorned with flags. The background displays a soft sky with scattered clouds.
Charles Parsons, Lyman W. Atwater, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, Summer Scenes in New York Harbor, 1869, hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.164

Summer Scenes in New York Harbor

Charles Parsons, Lyman W. Atwater, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1869 · hand-colored lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.164

Train tracks slice across a flat, grassy landscape with log cabins to our left and a river and mountains to our right in this horizontal lithograph. The scene is printed with vivid colors and is packed with tiny details. A train engine puffing black smoke pulls five cars from the bottom right corner away into the distance, angling to our left before disappearing on the horizon, which comes about three quarters of the way up the composition. Writing across the tops of the first three cars reads, “Through line New York San Francisco” in all caps. The open windows on the fourth car are crowded with riders. Tucked into the lower left corner, eleven log-built structures are mostly clustered closely together. Children play and run around the open door of the building closest to us, which is labeled “Public School.” Other people in long skirts or suits, some in hats, stand waving near the tracks. Four men in long-sleeved shirts or jackets and long pants, all with hats, chop down trees or hold shovels in a wooded area in the lower left corner. Four wagons, three of them covered and drawn by ox, move away from the town. All of the people in the town and on the train appear to have pale, peachy skin. The black smoke pouring from the train engine turns to slate gray where it blankets the ground to our right. Two people with brown skin, long black hair, feathered headdresses, and yellow and red clothing sit on horseback and are nearly swallowed by the smoke. A glassy, blue river winds into the distance to our left. One person is in a canoe on the river, which is lined by pines and other trees. White clouds kick up against the snowy mountain peaks that span the right half of the horizon against an otherwise bright blue sky. The margin around the scene is foxed, speckled brown against the white paper. Printed below the image, in all caps, the title reads, “Across the Continent. “Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way.” In tiny letters, immediately below the printed image are three more inscriptions. They read, to the left, “J.M. Ives, Del.” At the center, “Entered according to Act of Congress in the year AD. 1868 by Currier & Ives in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.” And to the right, in all caps, “Drawn by F.F. Palmer.”
Frances Flora Bond Palmer, James Merritt Ives, Currier and Ives, Across the Continent: "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way", 1868, lithograph with hand coloring and touches of gum arabic on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.160

Across the Continent: "Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its Way"

Frances Flora Bond Palmer, James Merritt Ives, Currier and Ives · 1868 · lithograph with hand coloring and touches of gum arabic on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.160

In muted blue, yellow, gray, and white against cream-colored paper, this horizontal print shows animals and pale-skinned people gathered around and among a snow-covered house and barn. To our right, the two-story farmhouse is constructed with horizontal, parchment-brown planks, and the structure is cropped by the right edge of the composition. Two women, two men, and a child gather near the darkened, open door of the farmhouse, which is protected by an overhanging roof. One woman standing in the doorway wears a long, cobalt-blue dress with a white apron and bonnet. On her hip, she holds a small child wearing a black garment and a white bonnet. Two men and the other woman stand near the door, and the two men shake hands. At the center of this trio, an older, cleanshaven man with white hair faces us as he shakes hands with a younger man with a goatee, to our left. The younger man and the woman stand with their backs to us, their bodies angled toward the older man. The men wear long black coats, black pants, and dark hats while the woman here wears a long, cranberry-red dress under a black coat and black hat. The adults all smile faintly. A charcoal-gray horse stands alongside the porch to our left, wearing a ring of sleigh bells like a belt. The horse is hitched to a blue sleigh on runners, which has a brown blanket inside. Closer to us, at the center of the composition, two steers, one brown and one black, stand attached to a sled loaded with gray logs. A man stands alongside the logs, looking back toward the farmhouse with his body angled to our right. He wears a blue coat, brown pants, and a gray hat, and holds a tall, thin staff or branch upright with his right hand. On the ground close to us, gray footprints and blue ice spread out in the otherwise pristine snow, and a small black dog walks toward the steers, to our left. Along the left half of the composition and farther back, the barn walls are clad in vertical, oatmeal-brown planks. An open shed is cut off by the left edge of the composition, and it holds what could be a ladder and carriage. Beyond it, there is a fenced in area in front of the barn with two cows, almost a dozen chickens, and a rooster standing in the snow. One door to the barn is open, and hay is piled high inside. A man with his back to us holds a long stick, presumably moving the hay. Two tall, dark gray, bare tree trunks grow in the fenced-in area to our left, and more grow up behind the house to our right. Another pile of hay, taller than the lean-to next to it, is dusted with snow. A snow-covered field beyond the buildings leads back to misty, gray-blue mountains. The hazy sky above has a pale, butter-yellow glow to our right against the ice-blue sky. The print is signed in the lower corners, with “G.H. Durrie 186” to our left and “Jno Schuller Del.” to our right. The work has text printed in the margin beneath the image. The largest text, at the bottom center, reads, “HOME TO THANKSGIVING.” Smaller text above it, immediately under the image, reads, “Entered according to Act of Congress AD 1867 by Currier & Ives in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of N.Y.” Under the main title, it reads, “NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY CURRIER & IVES, 152 NASSAU STREET.”
John Schutler, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, Home to Thanksgiving, 1867, hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.163

Home to Thanksgiving

John Schutler, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1867 · hand-colored lithograph on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.163

This print shows a nighttime scene on a large river. In the center is a steamboat named "PRINCESS" that is being loaded with wood by several people gathered around a fire. Smokestacks on the ship emit orange smoke into the dark sky. In the distance on the left, another steamboat is visible under a full moon, and clouds drift across the night sky. A bright moon lines the edges of the clouds in white. The color scheme includes deep blues and blacks with bright whites and warm oranges from the steamboat's lights and smoke. There is a line of text below the print.
Frances Flora Bond Palmer, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, "Wooding Up" on the Mississippi, 1863, color lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper, Donald and Nancy deLaski Fund, 2011.30.1

"Wooding Up" on the Mississippi

Frances Flora Bond Palmer, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1863 · color lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2011.30.1

This print depicts a winter farm scene. On the left is a large gray barn, its roof covered in snow and some small black birds. The large doors of the barn are open to reveal piles of yellow hay and a horse in a stall, with two men in dark jackets and hats standing on either side of the stall. In front of the barn's doors, cows, ducks, and chickens stand in a snowy yard bordered by a wooden fence, another pile of hay on the left. On the right are more snow-covered buildings, leafless trees, and distant gray hills under a pale gray sky with white clouds. Below the print are two lines of text.
Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, The Farm-Yard in Winter, 1861, hand-colored lithograph, with touches of gum arabic, on wove paper, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985.64.162

The Farm-Yard in Winter

Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1861 · hand-colored lithograph, with touches of gum arabic, on wove paper ·  Accession ID  1985.64.162

Fire burps out the top of a pair of smokestacks on two steamboats that power down a wide river at night in this color lithograph. Black smoke billows back from the flames, and steam hisses from smaller smokestacks at the back of the boats. The boat to our left is the Natchez, and writing around its name reads, “Vicksburg, Natchez and New Orleans Mail Line.” The other boat is the Eclipse. People line the decks of both as the boats race under the moonlit sky. A blanket of gray clouds breaks in front of the luminous moon. Printed text below the image reads, “A MIDNIGHT RACE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.” Tiny text printed under the lower left corner of the image reads, “F.F. PALMER DEL. FROM A SKETCH BY H.D. MANNING OF THE NATCHEZ” and “LITH. OF CURRIER & IVES, N.Y.” in the lower right.
Frances Flora Bond Palmer, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives, A Midnight Race on the Mississippi, 1860, color lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper, Donald and Nancy deLaski Fund, 2012.16.1

A Midnight Race on the Mississippi

Frances Flora Bond Palmer, Currier and Ives, Currier and Ives · 1860 · color lithograph with hand-coloring on wove paper ·  Accession ID  2012.16.1