The Turn of the Tune, Traveller Playing the "Arkansas Traveller"

At the left of this rural scene, a man, mounted on a white horse, plays a fiddle, while a boy holds the horse's reins. At center, a bearded man (dressed in a black hat, brown vest, white shirt and brown pants) dances outside a log cabin, where a woman stands in the cabin doorway (beneath a "WISKY" [sic] sign), as a toddler tugs at her skirt. A tall girl and three young children outside the cabin watch the two performers. Besides the wooden troubh at lower center, the family's dog is startled by the musical commotion. The title and caption are imprinted in the bottom margin.


Nathaniel Currier, whose New York-based lithography firm had begun in 1835, went on to produce thousands of hand-colored prints in various sizes that together create a vivid panorama of mid-to-late nineteenth century American life and its history. People eagerly acquired such lithographs featuring picturesque scenery, rural and city views, ships, railroads, portraits, hunting and fishing scenes, domestic life and numerous other subjects, as an inexpensive way to decorate their homes or business establishments. As the firm expanded, Nathaniel included his younger brother Charles in the business. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (the firm's accountant since 1852 and Charles's brother-in-law) was made a business partner; subsequently renamed Currier & Ives, the successful firm continued until 1907.