Editing Currier and Ives (section)

==History==
[[Nathaniel Currier]] (1813–88) was born in [[Roxbury, Massachusetts]], on March 27, 1813, the second of four children. His parents Nathaniel and Hannah Currier were distant cousins who lived a humble and spartan life. Tragedy struck when Nathaniel was eight years old, when his father unexpectedly died, leaving Nathaniel and his eleven-year-old brother Lorenzo to provide for the family: six-year-old sister Elizabeth and two-year-old brother Charles, as well as their mother.{{Cn|date=August 2022}}

Nathaniel worked a series of odd jobs to support the family and, at fifteen, he started what became a lifelong career when he apprenticed in the Boston lithography shop of William and John Pendleton.<ref name="Currier">The Currier and Ives Foundation, "[http://www.currierandives.com The history of Currier & Ives]"</ref> In 1833 at age twenty, he moved to Philadelphia to do contract work for M.E.D. Brown, a noted engraver and printer.<ref name="Brooke">Bob Brooke, "[http://www.howmuchisitworth.com/currier-and-ives.html The Enduring Appeal of Currier and Ives Prints]"</ref> Currier's early lithographs were issued under the name of Stodart & Currier, a result of the partnership that he created in 1834 with a local New York printmaker named Stodart. The two men specialized in "job" printing and made a variety of print products, including music manuscripts. Currier became dissatisfied with the poor economic return of their business venture and ended the partnership in 1835. He set up shop alone, working as "N. Currier, Lithographer" until 1856.{{Cn|date=August 2022}}

In 1835, he created a lithograph that illustrated a [[Great Fire of New York|fire]] sweeping through New York City's business district. The print of the Merchant's Exchange sold thousands of copies in four days. Currier realized that there was a market for current news, so he turned out several more disaster prints and other inexpensive lithographs that illustrated local and national events, such as "''Ruins of the Planter's Hotel, New Orleans, which fell at two O'clock on the Morning of May 15, 1835, burying 50 persons, 40 of whom Escaped with their Lives''{{-"}}.<ref name="Brooke"/> He quickly gained a reputation as an accomplished lithographer.<ref name="6aa162">{{cite web|url=http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/6aa/6aa162.htm |title=Currier and Ives: An American Panorama |publisher=Tfaoi.com |access-date=2013-11-16}}</ref> In 1840, he produced "Awful Conflagration of the [[Steamship Lexington|Steam Boat ''Lexington'']]", which was so successful that he was given a weekly insert in the ''[[The New York Sun (historical)|New York Sun]]''. In that year, Currier's firm began to shift its focus from job printing to independent print publishing.<ref name="Answers">[http://www.answers.com/topic/currier-and-ives Biography] at answers.com</ref>