Nathaniel Currier (March 27, 1813 – November 20, 1888) was an American lithographer. He headed the company Currier & Ives with James Ives.
Early life and education
Currier was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to Nathaniel and Hannah Currier. He attended public school until age fifteen, when he was apprenticed to the Boston printing firm of William and John Pendleton.
Career
The Pendletons were the first successful lithographers in the United States, lithography having only recently been invented in Europe. Currier learned the process in their shop. In 1833, he subsequently went to work for M. E. D. Brown in Philadelphia, in 1833. The following year, in 1834, Currier moved to New York City, where he intended to start a new business with John Pendleton but Pendleton backed out, and the new firm became Currier & Stodart and lasted only one year.
Currier & Ives
In 1835, Currier started his own lithographic business as an eponymous sole proprietorship, initially engaged in standard lithographic business of printing sheet music, letterheads, handbills, and other publishing-related products.
However, he soon took his work in a new direction, creating pictures of current events. In late 1835, he issued a print illustrating a recent fire in New York City, Ruins of the Merchant's Exchange N.Y. after the Destructive Conflagration of Decbr 16 & 17, 1835 was published by the New York Sun, just four days after the fire, and was an early example of illustrated news. The couple had one child, Edward West Currier, the next year. Eliza died in 1843.