Currier & Ives and Other Winter Tales

Currier & Ives and Other Winter Tales presents highlights from the Museum’s exceptional collection of works by 19th-century New York’s preeminent printmakers. From 1834 to 1907, the firm of Currier & Ives produced more than a million prints for the mass market, many of them based on works by the leading artists of the day. Currier & Ives’s iconic winter scenes of skaters in Central Park, along with bucolic scenes of snow-covered small-town life, became the standard imagery for the American holiday season. Other treasures on view from the Museum’s collection bring the spirit of Currier & Ives’s winters to life, with 19th-century skating outfits, old-fashioned ice skates, and a real one horse open sleigh. Completing the wintry scene are notable paintings from the collection by New York artists, including Childe Hassam and John O’Brien Inman, depicting the distinctive light, color, and activity of old New York under the mantle of winter.