Sunnyside: The Residence of the Late Washington Irving, near Tarrytown, N.Y.

This lovely color print features a large vine-covered house in a bucolic garden setting. On the lawn in front of the house, two gardeners are working. On a curved path near the tall trees at the left, a man wearing a top hat is seated on a bench with a dog lying at his feet. In the left background, sailboats sail on the river. As the imprinted title indicates, Sunnyside was the home of American author Washington Irving (1783-1859), who was best known for his stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1820). Located in Irvington, near Tarrytown, New York, on the banks of the Hudson River, Irving purchased the property in 1835; he expanded the original small cottage into the Romantic house depicted in this commemorative picture, made shortly after the author's death. Today, Sunnyside is a National Historic Landmark, open to the public.

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 and its cultural history. In 1857, Currier made his younger brother Charles's brother-in-law James Merritt Ives, a skilled accountant, a business partner. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring landscapes, 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.