Currier & Ives: Purveyors of Popular Prints in 19th Century America

The Currier and Ives firm was the most prolific printmaker of the 19th century in America. At one point it is estimated that over 90 percent of all prints in circulation were produced by the prolific lithographers. Viewers today often assume that the world represented in their prints was life as actually lived. But the images they sold conjured up an idealized picture of what nineteenth-century consumers imagined life to be, a representation that was nostalgic for them back then, just as it is for us today.

Check out the Bronxville Library's own Currier & Ives prints in our permanent art collection located in the hallway leading to the Yeager Room on the lower level.

Presented by:  Dr. Dennis Raverty is an Associate Professor at New Jersey City University where he teaches 19th and 20th-century art history, the art of West Africa, the diaspora and African American art, as well as the Renaissance and Baroque periods in Europe. An award-winning teacher, Raverty lives in New York City, and is currently co-authoring a book on American illustration with Dennis Dittrich, former president of the Society of Illustrators.  Visit his website:  https://www.dennisraverty.com/index.htm