Vigilant and Valkyrie in a "Thrash to Windward" – In Their International Race for "The America's Cup," October 7th, 9th, & 13th, 1893

This nautical print depicts a match race between fully-rigged British and American yachts during the eigth America's Cup competition of 1893. Here, the American yacht Vigilant (center) has taken the lead, with most of her crew on the far side of the deck to keep the boat from listing under full sail. The black-hulled Valkyrie follows in second place. A trailing tugboat flying an American flag appears in the central distance between the two yachts, while a single-stack steamboat is shown at the far right background. The print's inscription indicates that this race was won by Vigilant.

The New York firm of Currier & Ives (established by Nathaniel Currier, who formed a partnership with James Merritt Ives in 1857), made more than 7,000 lithographs between 1835 and 1907 for distribution across America and Europe. They issued landscapes, genre subjects, caricatures, portraits, historical scenes, foreign views and reproductions of art works. One popular sub-category concerned sailboats and racing. While earlier pictures were hand-colored, by the 1890s, lithographs could be printed in color.