Clipper Ship "Racer"

Marine views and pictures of ships have long appealed to collectors and popular taste. To meet consumer demand, Nathaniel Currier produced dozens of lithographs of American clipper ships, which were designed for speedy transport of passengers and large cargoes to meet international trade demands. This lithograph was made after a painting by James E. Butterworth, a maritime artist regarded among the best American ship portraitists of the nineteenth century; he excelled at creating an illusion of a ship moving through the waves. In May 1856, two years after this print was published, as the clipper ship "Racer" was sailing from Liverpool, England, bound for New York, it sank off the east coast of Ireland; fortunately, all five hundred passengers and crew members were rescued.


Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907.