Currier & Ives

NATHANIEL CURRIER (1813-1888) & JAMES MERRITT IVES (1824-1895)

Nathaniel Currier was born on March 27th, 1813 in Roxbury, Massachusetts. When he was eight, his father tragically passed away, leaving the family responsibilities to Nathaniel and his eleven year-old brother, Lorenzo. In order to support his family, Nathaniel began a life-long career at the age of fifteen when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton.

After many years, Currier was offered a print shop; however, he could not afford to buy it. He linked up with another local printer by the name of Stodart, and together they bought the business. In 1835, Stodart ended the partnership and young Currier, only 22, renamed his business “N. Currier, Lithographer.” In the upcoming years, Nathaniel Currier was married.

Through a friend of the family, Currier met James Merritt Ives. Ives was a native New Yorker born in 1824 and raised on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital where his father was employed as superintendent. Ives was a self-trained artist and professional bookkeeper. Currier employed Ives as the bookkeeper for his business. Ives went above and beyond and immediately impressed Currier. Currier eventually became so dependant on Ives, that he made him his partner. They renamed their lithograph business “Currier & Ives” and ran the company until their deaths, when their sons took over the business.

Molly Pitcher

The heroine on Monmouth. Molly Pitcher ... June 28th, 1778. Lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1876. Photograph courtesy www.CurrierandIves.Info (see link below).

George Washington crossing the Delaware, lithograph by Currier & Ives 1876. Photograph courtesy www.CurrierandIves.Info (see link below).

The American National Game of Baseball. Grand match for the championship at the Elysian Fields, Hoboken, N.J.

Shown above are three Currier and Ives lithographs depicting historic events that occurred in New Jersey. Born with the name Mary Hays McCauly, Molly Pitcher is known as an American revolutionary heroine. She earned her nickname by carrying water to her husband and other soldiers in the battle of Monmouth, New Jersey in 1778. For her heroic role, General Washington himself issued her a warrant as a noncommissioned officer. Thereafter, she was widely hailed as "Sergeant Molly." A flagstaff and cannon stand at her gravesite at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. A sculpture on the battle monument commemorates her courageous deed.

On December 25, 1776, General George Washington and a small army of 2,400 men crossed the Delaware River at McKonkey's Ferry in Pennsylvania. They were on their way to attack a Hessian garrison of 1,500 at Trenton, New Jersey. This march, at what was perhaps the lowest point of the American Revolution, provided a renewed hope for the Army, Congress and the general population.

The third print above depicts the first championship game of baseball held at Elysian Fields, Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 19, 1846 – the birth of baseball. The Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York lost to the New York Nine; the score was 23-1. Alexander Cartwright, the “father of baseball,” had developed the basic rules of the game the previous year, in 1845. Cartwright had organized the Knickerbocker Club.

(JLR)

References:

Michael Knigin. "The Contemporary Lithographic Workshop Around the World." Van Nostrand Reinhold Co.

http://www.state.nj.us/hangout_nj/200205_baseball_p1.html