Currier & Ives American Winter Scene print

Colored lithographic print titled "American Winter Scenes--Evening," by Currier & Ives, showing couples in sleighs arriving to a party at a large home by a lake. During the mid to late nineteenth century, the Currier & Ives printing firm was a well-known producer of lithographic prints. Common subjects matter included historical events such as the Civil and Revolutionary Wars, the North American landscape, rural life in the United States and wildlife. Nathaniel Currier began his career in the printing business as an apprentice at a Boston printing firm in 1828, and opened his own printing firm in New York in 1835. James Ives joined the firm in 1852 as a bookkeeper, and was soon made a partner in 1857. They sold prints from their own New York shop and also distributed them through peddlers and country stores across the United States. Currier and Ives were both succeeded in the printing business by their sons, Edward West Currier and Chauncey Ives. Both sons eventually sold their interest in the firm, and in 1907 the last owner, Daniel W. Logan, closed the business and sold the printing equipment.