Currier, Nathaniel

Currier, Nathaniel

(1813–88) lithographer; born in Roxbury, Mass. After apprentice years under William S. and John Pendleton in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York City, he established his own firm, issuing his first print in 1835. He made James Ives his partner in 1857 and the firm Currier & Ives became a household name, their hand-colored prints portraying a wide spectrum of 19th-century American life. Although relatively cheap in their day, they sold in quantities that made Currier and Ives quite prosperous. Currier retired in 1880, his son William carrying on the business with Ives.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.