Fording the River
Frances Flora Bond Palmer American, born England
Lithographed and published by Nathaniel Currier American
Not on view
Cows stand in a river and drink, as a man and boy on the back of a white horse stand in their midst. At right, a boy drives three goats into the water. Logs and bundles of twigs are stacked on the bank as a horse drawn cart brings additional logs along the adjacent road. At center, a man fishes beside a large tree, and a wooden bridge spans the river.
When Frances "Fanny" Flora Bond Palmer moved to New York from England in 1844 she was thirty-two and an accomplished artist and printmaker. Initially, Fanny and her husband Seymour operated a small print-shop in lower Manhattan, similar to one they had run in Leicester (United Kingdom). In 1849, the couple moved to Brooklyn after the business closed. Nathaniel Currier recognized Palmer’s talent and began to buy her drawings to use as print designs. She would later work as a staff artist for Currier & Ives and is considered one of the leading women lithographers of the period.
