"Thistle" – Cutter Yacht, designed by G. L. Watson, built by D. W. Henderson & Co., Glasgow, owned by Mr. James Bell, Glasgow, Scotland

In this nautical print, a single-masted yacht, rigged with four sails, moves on choppy waves towards the left. In the right background, there are five sailboats in the distance; one sailboat sails on the left horizon. Thistle was the unsuccessful Scottish challenger of the America's Cup Race of 1887.

The New York firm of Currier & Ives grew from a printing business established by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888) in 1835. Expansion led, in 1857, to a partnership with James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). Operating until 1907, the firm published more than 7,000 lithographs for distribution across America and Europe. Popular subject categories included landscapes, marine views, urban scenes, genre, caricatures, portraits, historical events, railroads, animals, and inspirations from literature. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, Currier & Ives began, as here, to print in color.