Sloop Yachts Mischief and Atalanta in the Race for "The America Cup" at New York, November 9th & 10th, 1881
Charles Richard Parsons American
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
American and Canadian yachts compete here in match races held in November 1881 to determine the fourth America's Cup. The competition had been established in 1851 and this was the first time that sloop-rigged yachts were admitted. The American defender Mischief prevailed against the Canadian challenger Atalanta and the first of three races, planned for November 8th, had to be cancelled because of fog.
The New York firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 7,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, Currier & Ives began, as here, to print in color.
