Wooding Up on the Mississippi

New York: Currier & Ives, 1863. Hand-colored lithograph approx. 30¼" x 22" (by sight); fine example with strong coloring; attractively matted and in a curly maple frame. Currier & Ives New Best Fifty, no. 23; Reilly, Currier & Ives, A Catalogue Raisonné, Detroit, 1984, pp. 737, 758; no. 7326. Provenance: from the collection of the Minnesota railroad tycoon James J. Hill, Saint Paul, Minnesota. One of Currier & Ives most famous and dramatic images depicting the steamboat Princess as firewood is loaded onto the ship to power its steam engines. The artist Frances Flora Bond Palmer (1812-1876), often referred to as Fanny Palmer, was an English (truncated) artist who became successful in the United States as a lithographer for Currier and Ives between 1849–1868. She is credited with producing around two hundred lithographs for them during this time. (Inventory #: 57141)