View of Waterbury, Connecticut fom "West Side Hill"

This picturesque Connecticut landscape shows a rural countryside being built up with houses dotting the far hillsides of the growing town of Waterbury. This vista appears from a hilltop in the foreground, where cows, sheep, and white horses graze; a river meanders through the valley below. On the dirt road at the left of the image, the artist included an engaging detail to animate the scene: a man driving a wagon is depicted just as he turns a corner.

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. People eagerly acquired his firm's lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American landscapes and rural vistas, like this rare early one, or hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments.