Who were Currier & Ives?
Currier & Ives were businessmen who owned a New York City lithography firm, called “Currier & Ives,” that printed over 7500 different prints from 1857 until 1907. The company began in 1835 with Nathaniel Currier, a printmaker, who was born in Massachusetts. Currier’s bookkeeper James Merritt Ives became a partner in the company in 1857 and often worked with artists to create the images for which the firm is famous. Though James Ives designed a series of prints published by the firm, neither he nor Nathaniel Currier was an artist. Instead, the men employed artists and lithographers to create images and also purchased designs from independent artists. Among the artists that worked for the company were Frances (Fanny) Flora Bond Palmer, Thomas Worth, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Louis Maurer, George Durrie and Charles Parsons.
