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The Ladder of Fortune

Currier and Ives -

Here Currier and Ives depicts the fruit of the spirit and the steps to happiness, contentment, influence, honor, a good conscience, the favor of God, long life, riches, self-respect, success, reputation and good will to men. It requires morality, honesty, industry, temperance, prudence, integrity, economy, punctuality, courage, and perseverance. People in the back ground are gambling, going on strike, betting, playing the lottery, writing policy and investing in stocks at the stock exchange.

Currier and Ives was a New York printmaking firm that operated from 1857 until 1907. Nathaniel Currier was a printmaker who started the business and James Ives, who started as the firm's bookkeeper, became Currier's partner in 1857. Neither man was an artist. The prints were drawn and lithographed by other persons, such as J. E. Butterworth, George H. Durrie, Louis Maurer, Frances or "Fanny" Flora Bond Palmer, Charles Parsons, Napoleon Sarony, and Thomas Worth to name a few. Nathaniel Currier died in 1888 and James Ives died in 1895. The firm carried on until 1907 under the direction of their sons, Edward West Currier and Chauncey Ives.


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