Biting Lively!
Thomas B. Worth American
Publisher Currier & Ives American
Not on view
Thomas Worth designed many satires for Currier & Ives whose humor derive sfrom verbal-visual puns. This example concerns two fishermen in a rowboat who struggle to reel in wriggling catches. The New York lithographic firm 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 4,000 subjects for distribution across America and Europe. Until the 1880s, images were printed in monochrome, then hand-colored by women who worked for the company.