Shooting on the Prairie

Currier and Ives was a new York City-based printmaking business operating from 1835 to 1907. Founded by Nathaniel Currier, the company designed and sold inexpensive hand-painted lithographic works based on news events, views of popular culture, and Americana. Advertising itself as "the Grand Central Depot for Cheap and Popular Prints," its name was changed to "Currier and Ives" with the addition of James Merritt Ives. Ives became the general manager of the firm, handling the financial side of the business by modernizing the bookkeeping, reorganizing inventory, and streamlining the print process. At least 7,500 lithographs were published in the firm's 72 years. Artists produced two to three new images every week for 64 years, producing more than a million prints by hand-colored lithography. For the original drawings, Currier and Ives employed or used the work of many celebrated artists of the day. Currier and Ives was the most prolific and successful company of lithographers in the U.S. Small individual works sold for five to twenty cents, and large works sold for $1 to $3 each. Today, original Currier and Ives prints are sought after by collectors, and modern reproductions of them are popular decorations. The winter scenes are particularly sought after. In 1907, the firm was liquidated.