Progress of the Century

BACKGROUND: Currier & Ives, firm whose lithographs were among the most popular wall hangings in 19th-century America. After undertaking apprenticeships in Boston and Philadelphia, Nathaniel Currier set up a print publishing company in New York City in 1834. He hired Ives as his bookkeeper in 1852 and made him a partner in 1857, creating the firm of Currier & Ives, which lasted, eventually under the management of their sons, until 1907. In an era before photojournalism, Currier met the public’s demand for graphic representation of recent events. In 1835 he printed a lithograph, "The Ruins of the Merchants’ Exchange," four days after the building burned, and in 1840, three days after the event, he issued a colored print of a steamship burning on Long Island Sound. In partnership with Ives, who had a flair for gauging popular interests, he expanded his range from depictions of disasters to political satire and other topical subjects, as well as to dramatic or slightly sentimentalized scenes such as steamboat races, boxing matches, sleigh rides in the country, and fashionable soirees. Touting itself as “Publishers of Cheap and Popular Pictures,” the firm sold prints ranging in price from 5 cents to $3, depending on the size. The firm sold retail as well as wholesale, establishing outlets in cities across the country and in London. Between 1840 and 1890 it published more than 7,000 prints.

SAMPLE PROMPT: Evaluate the consequences of the industrial revolution.

SAMPLE THESIS: The industrial revolution further connected the world in trade and communications.