Editing Currier and Ives (section)

==The lithographs==
[[File:The American Fireman by Louis Maurer 1858.jpg|thumb|''The American Fireman'', an 1858 lithograph by [[Louis Maurer]] for Currier and Ives]]
[[File:NSAPINY9 EXTR.jpg|thumb|''Central-Park Winter. The skating pond'', a lithograph by Currier and Ives, 1862]]
The prints depicted a variety of images of American life, including winter scenes, [[Horse racing|horse-racing]] images, [[portrait]]s of people, and pictures of ships, sporting events, patriotic, and historical events, including ferocious battles of the [[American Civil War]], the building of cities and railroads, and Lincoln's assassination. Currier and Ives also produced many prints that were inherently racist in nature, particularly in a series of prints called the [[Darktown Comics]]. They depicted African Americans in very demeaning ways, making a very clear mockery of them to their white counterparts. These types of images were popular in the 19th century and in high demand. Many of these images are still readily available to view and purchase.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Currier & Ives |url=https://philaprintshop.com/collections/currier-ives |access-date=2024-10-24 |website=Philadelphia Print Shop |language=en}}</ref> 

The original lithographs shared similar characteristics in inking and paper, and adhered to folio sizes. Sizes of the images were standard (trade cards, very small folios, small folios, medium folios, large folios), and their measurement did not include the title or borders. These sizes are one of the guides for collectors today in determining if the print is an original or not. "Currier used a cotton based, medium to heavy weight paper depending on the folio size for his prints until the late 1860s. From about 1870, Currier and Ives used paper mixed with a small amount of wood pulp." In addition, Currier's inking process resembled a mixture of elongated splotches and dashes of ink with a few spots, a characteristic that modern reproductions would not possess.<ref name="currierprints.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.currierprints.com/Reproductions.htm |title=Currier and Ives Lithographic Value Guides |publisher=Currierprints.com |access-date=2013-11-16}}</ref>

In 1907, the firm was liquidated and most of the lithographic stones had the image removed and were sold by the pound, with some stones' final home being as land fill in Central Park. Those few stones that managed to survive intact were of large folio Clipper Ships, small folio Dark Town Comics, a medium folio "Abraham Lincoln" and a small folio "Washington As A Mason".<ref name="currierprints.com"/>
*Currier and Ives Civil War lithographs<ref>[[commons:Category:Currier and Ives Civil War lithographs|Commons.wikimedia.org]]</ref>
*Known railroad related lithographs of Currier and Ives<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.coxrail.com/currier/index.htm |title=coxrail.com |publisher=coxrail.com |access-date=2013-11-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609041223/http://www.coxrail.com/currier/index.htm |archive-date=June 9, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
*Currier and Ives: Perspectives on America, American Public Television, Video<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aptonline.org/catalog.nsf/AlphaLookup/5646A395C8129E5C852574730073DFF5 |title=aptonline.org |publisher=aptonline.org |date=2013-08-28 |access-date=2013-11-16}}</ref>
*High Water in the Mississippi, 1868<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200503A09.html |title=pbs.org |publisher=pbs.org |access-date=2013-11-16}}</ref>
*Currier and Ives [[Darktown Comics|Darktown Comic]] Series, Albion College<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/exhibits/currier&ives.asp|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090716184547/http://www.albion.edu/library/specialcollections/exhibits/currier%26ives.asp|url-status=dead|title=albion.edu|archive-date=July 16, 2009|access-date=October 20, 2019}}</ref>
Today, original Currier and Ives prints are much sought by collectors, and modern reproductions of them are popular decorations. Especially popular are the winter scenes, which are commonly used for American [[Christmas card]]s.{{Cn|date=August 2022}} In 2019 a print of ''Across the Continent'' by [[Fanny Palmer]] sold at auction for over US$60,000.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=8 May 2019 |title=Currier & Ives print sets auction record at $62,500 |url=https://www.antiquetrader.com/art/currier-ives-print-sets-auction-record-at-62500 |access-date=2022-08-09 |website=[[Antique Trader]] |language=en}}</ref>[[File:Liberty frightenin de world (color) (cropped).jpg|thumb|Statue of Liberty lithograph]]

===Racist lithographs===
{{Main|Darktown Comics}}
Currier and Ives, because they were targeting a middle-class American customer, inadvertently created a "pictorial record" of values in the United States in the 19th century, which included contemporary racism.<ref name="lebeauJACC2000&quot;">{{Cite web |last=Le Beau |first=Bryan |date=Spring 2000 |title=African Americans in Currier and Ives's America: The darktown series |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/200582642 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2021-02-15 |website=[[Journal of American and Comparative Cultures]]|id={{ProQuest|200582642}} }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Currier & Ives |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/6086252 |title=Currier & Ives |date=1980 |publisher=Abbeville Press |others=Albert K. Baragwanath |isbn=0-89659-092-5 |location=New York |oclc=6086252}}</ref>{{Rp|13}} According to Albert Baragwanath, of the approximately 500 "comic prints" produced by Currier and Ives, "more than half of these were the so-called Darktown Comics whose humor lay in gross burlesque."<ref name=":5" />{{Rp|104}}

The Darktown Comics series was perennially among the bestselling of Currier and Ives' over 7000 lithographs, with at least one selling 73,000 copies via pushcarts and in shops and country stores.<ref name="gale1993">{{Cite book |last=Gale |first=Robert L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-U93AAAAMAAJ&q=%22The+best+-+selling+item+appears+to+have+been+%E2%80%9C+Darktown+Comics%22%22 |title=A Cultural Encyclopedia of the 1850s in America |date=1993 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0-313-28524-0 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Harris |first=Michael D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tNbq3-vuIPkC |title=Colored Pictures: Race and Visual Representation |date=2003 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press |isbn=978-0-8078-2760-4 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Peters |first=Harry T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xtWizQEACAAJ |title=Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People |date=1948 |publisher=Doubleday |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=William Fletcher Thompson |first=Jr. |date=1962 |title=Pictorial Propaganda and the Civil War |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4633807 |journal=The Wisconsin Magazine of History |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=21–31 |issn=0043-6534 |jstor=4633807}}</ref> According to J. Michael Martinez, every one of the series was a bestseller.<ref name="martinez2016">{{Cite book |last=Martinez |first=J. Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LG-oCwAAQBAJ&q=%22darktown+comics%22+best+sellers&pg=PA197 |title=A Long Dark Night: Race in America from Jim Crow to World War II |date=2016-04-14 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=978-1-4422-5996-6 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|197}}

Thomas Worth recreated a previous [[Statue of Liberty]] image, using an [[African American]] woman similar to the [[Mammy stereotype|mammy]] figure holding a torch as part of their [[Darktown Comics]] series.{{Cn|date=August 2022}}