Corned Beef

In this comic farm scene, two cows, made drunk from eating fermented fruit from an overturned barrel, slobber and stagger in front of a wooden cottage. A white boy, seated on a fence at left, exclaims to his mother: "Mammy these here cattle/is cotch't the staggers/eatin them are rum cherries." The poor, exasperated farmer's wife, standing in the doorway with her arms upward in amazement, replies: "Dear me what beasts they/make of themselves. This/all comes of their keeping/company with that drunken/brute my husband."

Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888), 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 America. In 1857, James Merritt Ives (1824– 1895), the accounting-savvy brother-in-law of Nathaniel's brother Charles, was made a business partner. People eagerly acquired Currier & Ives lithographs, such as those featuring spectacular American 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. While the United States was primarily an agrarian society when this print was made, urban print collectors evidently found amusement in scenes like this one, even though it downplays the hardships experienced by poor farming families.