The Electric Light

Thomas Edison stands in New Jersey and leans across the Hudson River to join hands with Charles F. Brush, the inventor of the arc light, who stands with one foot planted in Brooklyn the other in Manhattan. The two men touch the tips of their cigars together beneath an electric horseshoe.

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 brother-in-law James Merritt Ives (1824–1895). The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 4,000 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 monochrome, then generally hand-colored by women who worked for the company at home. This example remained uncolored