The Progress of Intemperance by Nathaniel Currier
date: label: Date made
content: 1841
name: label: maker
content: Currier, Nathaniel
notes: label: Description
content: This hand colored print depicts an interior scene of a cottage with two men, a woman and four children. The two men are seated, one in an armchair and the other in a basketry chair. The man dressed in black sits in an armchair being served a drink by children. He appears to be a visitor. The other man, dressed in white, holds his head and looks ill. The woman holds a baby while another child leans on the knee of the sick man. A young boy plays at a table next to the man in white.
label: Description
content: This print was produced by Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888). Currier was the founder of the company that eventually became the Currier & Ives lithography firm. At the age of fifteen Currier apprenticed with the Pendleton lithography firm in New York City. Five years later, he moved to Philadelphia to work with the lithographer M.E.D. Brown (1810-1896). After a year Currier moved back to New York, where he intended on going into business with one of the Pendleton brothers. Instead he formed a partnership in 1834 with a man named Stodart. Within a year he opened his own lithography company on Wall Street and then moved to Nassau and Spruce. In 1852 a bookkeeper named James Merritt Ives joined the firm. He married Charles Currier’s sister-in-law and brought to the firm a critical eye and business acumen. In five years he had become a partner. Currier & Ives would become arguably the most successful and prodigious lithography firm of the 19th century. Although especially well known for prints celebrating American landscapes and pastimes like sailing and ice skating, Currier & Ives also produced lithographs that featured current events, social issues and political controversies.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Education
label: Subject
content: Drinking
label: Subject
content: Eating
label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1840-1849
label: Subject
content: Marriage
label: Subject
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Furnishings
label: Subject
content: Temperance
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Temperance Movement
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content: Art
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content: Peters Prints
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Harry T. Peters "America on Stone" Lithography Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.60.2950
label: catalog number
content: 60.2950
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 8 1/2 in x 13 in; 21.59 cm x 33.02 cm