The Schooner Yacht Magic of the New York Yacht Club – Franklin Osgood Esq. Owner and Commander

This nautical print commemorates the first win of the America's Cup by a New York Yacht Club sailing vessel: the two-masted, schooner-rigged yacht Magic races under full sail with crew members visible on deck, while other vessels appear in the distance. Franklin Osgood (1826–1888), a businessman with controlling interests in several mining companies, and an experienced yachtsman, purchased the yacht in 1869. Magic, one of sixteen New York Yacht Club vessels to race in the first challenge for the America’s Cup in August 1870, defeated the English challenger, Cambria, owned by James Lloyd Ashbury who belonged to the Royal Thames Yacht Club.



The New York firm of Currier & Ives (established in 1835 by Nathaniel Currier, who formed a partnership with James Merritt Ives in 1857), made more than 7,000 lithographs until 1907 for distribution across America and Europe. They offered images of landscapes, genre subjects, caricatures, portraits, historical scenes, foreign views and reproductions of art works that together provide a vivid panorama of American life in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. One popular subject was sailboats and racing. Until printed color became prevalent, such pictures were drawn on lithographic stones, printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the firm.