Yacht "Puritan" of Boston
Charles Richard Parsons American
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
Built in Boston, Massachusetts, the yacht "Puritan" was launched in late May 1885. Skippered by John Malcolm Forbes, the ship went on to successfully defend the American title at England's "America's Cup" regatta later that summer. This print served as a popular souvenir celebrating its victory.
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). The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 7,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories including landscape, marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in black ink, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company. In the latter decades of the nineteenth century, Currier & Ives began to print, as here, in color.
