"Twas a Calm Still Night"

In this comic backyard scene at night, twelve noisy cats and a barking dog chained to its dog house beside a garden wall (left background), have awakened a man, who throws a boot from the upper story window (right background) of a vine-covered house. A wooden high-boot stretcher is in mid-air, as the man previously tossed it to disrupt the noisy animals. In the central foreground, five yowling cats surround the base of a clothesline pole and look up at a cat crawling up the pole towards the top, where a black cat arches its back and hisses. Between the pole and the house (right foreground), two cats fight on the grass below white laundry hanging on the clothesline. At upper left, three growling cats crawl along the top of the garden wall (above the barking dog). A full moon os visible amid the clouds. The title is imprinted in the center of the bottom margin.

Nathaniel Currier, whose successful New York-based lithography firm began in 1835, produced thousands of prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the firm continued until 1907.