Getting a Boost

The late nineteenth-century Americana prints by Currier & Ives often depict Black (African-American) people by using racist stereotypes that are disturbing. The Metropolitan Museum of Art preserves such works to shed light on their historical context and to enable the study and evaluation of racism.

At the left of this print, two Black (African-American) men gently push the back of a drunken white man, who, using a chair as a step, gingerly climbs into a horse-drawn cart with his arms awkwardly outstretched. The black men wear tailored vests over their neat white shirts, and a long white apron over their slim pants. At the right, a Black groom steadies the cart's horse by holding its bridle while the inebriated driver enters the four-wheel cart. Standing on the covered porch at the far left, two men, wearing top hats and suits, smile with amusement.
























Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), who established a successful New York-based lithography firm in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century America. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824–1895), the accounting-savvy brother-in-law of Nathaniel's brother Charles, was made a business partner. Subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued via their successors until 1907. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American landscapes, rural and city views, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life, comic situations and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments.