Into Mischief
date: label: date made
content: 1857
name: label: maker
content: Currier & Ives
label: maker
content: Maurer, Louis
notes: label: Description
content: Sentimental genre prints documented the social image of Victorian virtue through domestic scenes of courtship, family, home life, and images of the “genteel female.” Children are depicted studying nature or caring for their obedient pets as they learn their place in the greater world. Romantic scenes picture devoted husbands with their contented, dutiful wives. In these prints, young women educated in reading, music, needlework, the arts, the language of flowers, basic math and science are subjugated to their family’s needs.
label: Description
content: These prints became popular as lithography was introduced to 19th Century Americans. As a new art form, it was affordable for the masses and provided a means to share visual information by crossing the barriers of race, class and language. Sentimental prints encouraged the artistic endeavors of schoolgirls and promoted the ambitions of amateur artists, while serving as both moral instruction and home or business decoration. They are a pictorial record of our romanticized past.
label: Description
content: This colored print is of a little girl seated on the floor with a high silk hat placed between her legs. She is pouring water from a cup into the hat and is stirring it with a parasol. A piece of lace hangs over the side of the hat. She is surrounded by a pitcher containing a doll turned upside down, a folded fan with a tassel, a spoon, a dish, and an ink well which is on its side spilling ink onto a piece of paper with an envelope.
label: Description
content: This print was published by Currier & Ives and Louis Maurer. Louis Maurer (1832-1932) was born in Biebrich, Germany, the oldest of five children. Maurer had a multitude of talents including expert knowledge of conchology, an accomplished flutist, expert marksmen, a skillful painter and a talented lithographer. In 1851 his family moved from Germany to the United States. Maurer first worked for T.W. Strong and shortly after was hired by Nathaniel Currier of Currier & Ives. He worked exclusively for Currier & Ives from 1852 – 1860, before he went to work for Major & Knapp, the successor of Sarony & Major. He continued to work for Currier & Ives by commission but in 1872 he started his own partnership with F. Heppenheimer, Maurer & Heppenheimer. This company specialized in labels, show cards and letterheads. He retired in 1884 and died at the age of one hundred.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York, New York City
topic: label: Subject
content: Communication, letter writing
label: Subject
content: Drinking
label: Subject
content: Eating
label: Subject
content: Chronology: 1850-1859
label: Subject
content: Adornment
label: Subject
content: Children
label: Subject
content: Toys
label: Subject
content: Games
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: Art
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content: Peters Prints
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content: Domestic Furnishings
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Peters, Harry T.. Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People Volume Two
label: Related Publication
content: Welsh, Peter C. and Caroline. The Genteel Female
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.60.2393
label: catalog number
content: 60.2393
label: accession number
content: 228146
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lithograph
label: Object Type
content: Lithograph
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: image: 24 3/8 in x 18 7/8 in; 61.9125 cm x 47.9425 cm