One of the oldest and most iconic of all the makers of Christmas scenes in history is Currier & Ives. This nineteenth printmaking business was founded by Nathaniel Currier and James Merritt Ives in New York City. The two sought to produce prints from hand-colored lithographs that were affordable for regular people. Their success was remarkable – and their impact on the holidays almost immeasurable.
Over the seventy-plus years that the firm was in operation, it produced approximately 7,500 lithographs. Established artists produced original drawings which were then hand-colored. Prints from the resulting lithographs were in excess of a million. They literally flooded the popular consciousness with imagery.
You can still tell an original Currier & Ives from the stone print on the paper’s surface. Lithographs were made from pictures literally drawn with a grease pen onto the surface of a limestone. The surface was then covered with both water and ink – the grease ink did not mix with water and clung to the surface of the drawing. A special press then transferred the drawing onto the original paper.
It was a time-consuming process – and that didn’t even take into consideration the fact that the images then had to be colored. This was generally done with either colored pencils or with ink, often by women who simply had one color and applied to the same spot on the print over and over, much like an assembly line.
George Durrie was a Connecticut artist responsible for most of Currier & Ives’ winter prints. Whether it was a horse drawn sleigh rounding a snowy bend, or ice skaters cris-crossing a frozen pond, it was his imagination that brought New England winters to the page – both for the firm and its many customers across the country.
The work of Currier & Ives found its way into popular culture through many venues. There were the prints, of course, many of which have accompanied Christmas poems and other work. But there were also images reproduced onto china and dinnerware such as coffee mugs or plates. There were calendars. There were posters.
These days, your best bet for taking a look at the broad spectrum of images produced by this company is online. Of course, reproductions abound and can be found in dozens of settings. There are still original Currier & Ives out there, however.
Today, these images are literally burned into our collective memory, images of both winter and the winter holidays that persevere.
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