View of West Rock, Near New Haven, Connecticut

In this rural Connecticut landscape, West Rock, a monolithic ridge covered with trees, is featured in central distance. In the foreground, as one cow grazes on shore, two others wade in the water. On the opposite bank, there is a small cabin, with smoke puffing out of its chimney; nearby,two tiny figures approach the water's edge.

Nathaniel Currier, who established a successful New York-based lithography firm in 1835, produced thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life. In 1857, Currier made James Merritt Ives (1824-1895) a business partner. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American landscapes like this one, or rural and city views, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. The firm operated until 1907, lithographing over 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe with popular categories also including marines, natural history, genre, caricatures, portraits, history and foreign views. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company. In the late nineteenth century, Currier & Ives began to print lithographs in color.