Royal Mail Steam Ship, Europa

In this nautical print, Currier & Ives depicted a ship (with centrally positioned paddle wheels, a single smoke stack, and three masts) sailing toward the left; several of the crew are on deck. The United States flag flies from the top of the front mast. Another ship and a sailboat are in the left background. The ship's name and such statistics as its dimensions, weight, horse power are imprinted in the margin below the image.


The New York firm of Currier & Ives (established by Nathaniel Currier, who later formed a partnership with his brother's brother-in-law James Merritt Ives in 1857), lithographed 4,300 subjects between 1835 and 1907 for distribution across America and Europe. The firm produced landscapes, genre subjects, caricatures, portraits, historical scenes, foreign views and reproductions of art works. One popular sub-category concerned various types of ships and boats. The pictures were drawn on lithographic stones, printed in monochrome, then generally hand-colored by others (often women who worked for the firm at home).