This hand-colored print, retouched with watercolors, is of an interior scene depicting three men around a table in a well-appointed study. They are dressed in tightly tailored blue or brown frock coats, britches, white shirts, cravats(sons) and ascots (father). One is standing and receiving money from his father. The other son is seated on a red chair and looks on disapprovingly.
The parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son is among the best-known Christian morality tales and is found in Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of the two sons demands his share of his father’s estate which the father gives him. Shortly after, he runs off and squanders the wealth “in wild living”. Finding himself destitute, he returns to his father, repents his ways, and begs to be allowed to serve as a hired servant. The father rejoices at the return of his son “who was lost and is found.” Meanwhile, the obedient, older son is angry and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him to forgive and to understand his joy.
This print was originally produced by Amos Doolittle and later printed by the lithographic firm of D. W. Kellogg and Company. Amos Doolittle (1754-1832) was an American engraver who was trained as a jeweler and silversmith. He lived in Connecticut and was especially well known for his four engravings of the battles of Lexington and Concord. He also engraved Biblical scenes, bookplates and portraits.
Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded D. W. Kellogg and Company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830. Even before its first retail store opened in 1834, the D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg was responsible for the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company, it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
A nearly identical print (60.2921A) was made by the same principal publisher and another (60.2944) with a modified image was created about a decade later. Print (60.2938) depicts the same theme with a different illustration and by a different publisher.
This colored print depicts Adam and Eve, downcast beside a small lake. A distraught Eve is naked and kneeling on the ground. Adam is standing and fashioning a covering of branches to hide his nakedness and shame. A sylvan setting of trees and gentle hills forms the background.
The Expulsion represents the passage from the book of Genesis (3:22-24) after the Fall. That is, after Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit which God has forbidden them to eat, they are cast out of the Garden of Eden and into the world where they are forced to labor and suffer the consequences of their sin. This scene encapsulates the central tenet of Christianity: only by repenting and following the teachings of Christ, can mankind obtain salvation.
This print was produced by James S. Baillie, who was active in New York from 1838 to 1855. James Baillie started as a framer in 1838, and then became an artist and lithographer in 1843 or 1844. He discovered how to color lithographs while working as an independent contractor for Currier & Ives in the mid 1840s. He was a prolific lithographer and colorist for Currier & Ives, and his prints were extremely popular with a wide distribution. James Baillie spent his later years concentrating on painting instead of lithography.
This colored print depicts a male from infancy to old age in decade-long spans. This was a popular and recurring theme of genteel society during the 19th Century. The figures are shown on ascending steps up to age 50 and then descending, with age 100 being the lowest to the right. Each image portrays a well-dressed youth or man in appropriate attire for his position in society (i.e., gentleman, soldier, elder). Verses beneath each figure associate a depicted animal with that stage of life. A small vignette of two people standing near a monument in a cemetery is in the center foreground.
This print was produced by James S. Baillie, who was active in New York from 1838 to 1855. James Baillie started as a framer in 1838, and then became an artist and lithographer in 1843 or 1844. He discovered how to color lithographs while working as an independent contractor for Currier & Ives in the mid 1840s. He was a prolific lithographer and colorist for Currier & Ives, and his prints were extremely popular with a wide distribution. James Baillie spent his later years concentrating on painting instead of lithography.
This hand colored print depicts a male from infancy to old age in decade-long spans. This was a popular and recurring theme of genteel society during the 19th Century. The figures are shown on ascending steps up to age 50 and then descending, with age 100 being the lowest to the right. Each image portrays a well-dressed youth or man in appropriate attire for his position in society (i.e., gentleman, soldier, elder). Verses beneath each figure associate a depicted animal with that stage of life. A small vignette of two people standing near a monument in a cemetery is in the center foreground. A flag waves at the top of the pyramid.
This print was produced by James S. Baillie, who was active in New York from 1838 to 1855. James Baillie started as a framer in 1838, and then became an artist and lithographer in 1843 or 1844. He discovered how to color lithographs while working as an independent contractor for Currier & Ives in the mid-1840s. He was a prolific lithographer and colorist for Currier & Ives, and his prints were extremely popular with a wide distribution. James Baillie spent his later years concentrating on painting instead of lithography.
This colored print is an interior scene depicting three men around a table in a well-appointed study. They are dressed in tightly tailored blue or brown frock coats, britches, white shirts, cravats(sons) and ascots (father). One is standing and receiving money from his father. The other son is seated on a red chair and looks on disapprovingly.
The parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son is among the best-known Christian morality tales and is found in Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of the two sons demands his share of his father’s estate which the father gives him. Shortly after, he runs off and squanders the wealth “in wild living.” Finding himself destitute, he returns to his father, repents his ways, and begs to be allowed to serve as a hired servant. The father rejoices at the return of his son “who was lost and is found.” Meanwhile, the obedient, older son is angry and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him to forgive and to understand his joy.
This print was originally produced by Amos Doolittle and later printed by the lithographic firm of D. W. Kellogg and Company. Amos Doolittle (1754-1832) was an American engraver who was trained as a jeweler and silversmith. He lived in Connecticut and was especially well known for his four engravings of the battles of Lexington and Concord. He also engraved Biblical scenes, bookplates and portraits. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded D. W. Kellogg and Company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830. Even before its first retail store opened in 1834, the D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg was responsible for the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company, it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
A nearly identical print (60.2921A) was made by the same principal publisher and another (60.2944) with a modified image was created about a decade later. Print (60.2938) depicts the same theme with a different illustration and a different publisher.
This colored print depicts a large genealogical tree depicting the early history of the world, with a table showing the lineage of the Biblical patriarchs, from the creation of Adam to the Deluge. “Antediluvian” means “before the flood” and refers to the period before the Deluge as described in Genesis 6:11-9.19 of the Bible.
This print was produced by Endicott and Company, the successor to the New York firm of Geo. & Wm. Endicott Lithographers. George (1802-1848) and William Endicott (1816-1851) were born in Canton, Massachusetts. George Endicott began working as a lithographer in New York in 1828. He partnered with Moses Swett in the company Endicott & Swett from 1830 to 1834. William Endicott joined the company in 1841. Following George Endicott's death in 1848, the firm continued operating as William Endicott & Co. Francis Endicott (born ca. 1834) worked at the company from 1852 to 1886, and George Endicott, Jr. ran the firm from 1887 to 1891.
This hand colored memorial print depicts two gentlemen standing on each side of a tombstone. Behind the monument is a weeping willow tree and a white rosebush. The monument is inscribed "To the memory of {blank}” and contains the comforting words of Psalm 91:2 and Psalm 49:15, which profess a belief in the resurrection and salvation of the faithful. On the monument are the words: I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, my God, in him will I trust. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me." Memorial prints depicting gave monuments were common during the antebellum or Victorian period and the Kellogg family produced several similar prints.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872) and Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881) were brothers of the founder of the Kellogg lithography firm, Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874). After D.W. Kellogg moved west, his two brothers took over the family lithography firm in 1840 and changed the name to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. The younger two of the four Kellogg brothers, they were responsible for the continued success of the family firm. These two brothers were also involved in the eventual partnerships between the company and Horace Thayer in 1845 or 1846, John Chenevard Comstock (1818-1862) in 1848 and William Henry Bulkeley (1840-1902) in 1867.
This colored print shows a large “tree of life.” This natural tree also symbolizes the wooden cross of the crucifixion, as its trunk holds an image of Christ. The branches contain about two dozen words which denote Christian sacraments, practices, and virtues. Above the tree, is a triangle symbolizing the Holy Trinity.
The idealized city of "New Jerusalem" is depicted in the background behind the tree. In the foreground, is a crowd of people representing this present "Evil World.” Men and women are portrayed as searching for salvation amidst a world full of vices such as drunkenness, prostitution, and violence. Two quotations from Scripture appear beneath the title.
There is no information available about the lithographer of this print.
This colored print depicts a man, Reverend Ephraim Avery (1799-1869), being rowed across a river by demons. A young woman on the left bank is hanging by her neck from a fence with a note at her feet on a farm. On the right bank are two demons, a figure and a body in a cauldron. The scene is based on the murder in Bristol, Rhode Island of a pregnant Fall River mill girl, Sarah Maria Cornell (1802-1832), which was sensationalized in the press and resulted in a jury trial in Newport concluding with an unpopular acquittal of Avery, who was a Methodist Minister. Sarah Cornell was the daughter of Lucretia and James Cornell, but her father had abandoned the family when she was a baby, and the girl was a troubled teen, frequently in trouble for theft and “inappropriate” behavior. She worked in various mills, and became a Methodist while working in Slaterville, RI 1823-1826. While working in Lowell, Massachusetts she met Reverend Ephraim Avery, a married man. They allegedly were together at the Methodist Camp Meeting, August 1832. Cornell left several incriminating letters concerning Reverend Avery amongst her belongings, but after the autopsy confirmed her pregnancy, the original cause of death of suicide was abandoned in favor of a murder investigation. The trial resulted in very negative press for the Methodist Church, particularly after Avery was acquitted and Cornell’s body was forbidden burial in a Methodist cemetery due to her “promiscuity and fornication.” Her body was moved several times before a final burial at Oak Grove Cemetery, in Fall River, where Lizzie Borden, another high profile murder principal, is also buried.
This print was produced by Henry R. Robinson, who was a caricaturist and lithographer in New York City. He was listed as a carver and gilder from 1833-34, as a caricaturist from 1836-43 and as a lithographer and print publisher from 1843-51. Henry Robinson was known for political prints that championed the causes of the Whig Party (which later merged with the Republican Party) and satirized the opposing Democratic Party. New York state historian Peter C. Welsh has called Henry Robinson the "Printmaker to the Whig Party".
Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church
maker
Currier, Nathaniel
ID Number
DL.60.2929
catalog number
60.2929
accession number
228146
Description
This black and white print is of a life membership to a Mr. Philip J.A. Harper issued by the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Society, begun in 1820 and headquartered in New York City, was among the earliest organizations that focused on mission within and outside the United States. It initially worked to convert Native Americans and slaves before extending its activities to inhabitants of West Africa and elsewhere overseas.
A vignette depicting missionary activity appears above the text that was inspired by the Society’s proselytizing during the 19th Century. On the right side is a depiction of Native Americans and Africans who were “saved” due to the preaching of a missionary. The left side shows the damnation that comes to those who fail to hear God’s word. Above the scene floats a triumphant angel sent by God who is blowing a trumpet, Bible in hand.
This print was produced by Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888). Currier was the founder of the company that eventually became the Currier & Ives lithography firm. At the age of fifteen Currier apprenticed with the Pendleton lithography firm in New York City. Five years later he moved to Philadelphia to work with the lithographer M.E.D. Brown (1810-1896). After a year Currier moved back to New York, where he intended on going into business with one of the Pendleton brothers. Instead he formed a partnership in 1834 with Adam Stodart who was in the sheet music business. Within a year he opened his own lithography company on Wall Street and then moved to Nassau and Spruce. In 1852 a bookkeeper named James Merritt Ives joined the firm. He married Charles Currier’s sister-in-law and brought to the firm a critical eye and business acumen. In five years he had become a partner. Currier & Ives would become arguably the most successful and prodigious lithography firm of the 19th century. Although especially well known for prints celebrating American landscapes and pastimes like sailing and ice skating, Currier & Ives also produced lithographs that featured current events, social issues and political controversies
This black and white print is an allegorical representation of the path to eternal damnation. It depicts a city, "The City of Corruption," surrounded by erupting volcanoes, with a fiery, roiling lake in the foreground. The path of damnation is crowded with people walking toward the lake, while some are tumbling into it. A placid river, calm ocean and setting (rising?) sun are in the background, representing God's love and salvation. The image is keyed, with numbers corresponding to the text below.
This print was produced by Endicott and Company, the successor to the New York firm of Geo. & Wm. Endicott Lithographers. George (1802-1848) and William Endicott (1816-1851) were born in Canton, Massachusetts. George Endicott began working as a lithographer in New York in 1828. He partnered with Moses Swett in the company Endicott & Swett from 1830 to 1834. William Endicott joined the company in 1841. Following George Endicott's death in 1848, the firm continued operating as William Endicott & Co. Francis Endicott (born ca. 1834) worked at the company from 1852 to 1886 and George Endicott, Jr. ran the firm from 1887 to 1891.
This colored print shows a female at different stages from infancy to old age. This was a popular and recurring theme of genteel society during the 19th Century. The figures are depicted in ascending steps to middle age and then descending, with old age being the lowest to the right. Each image portrays a well-dressed girl or woman in appropriate attire for her position in society (i.e., bride, mother, matron). There are verses beneath each figure and vignettes that symbolize various stages of life. A small vignette of two people standing beside a man digging three graves is in the center foreground.
This print was produced by James S. Baillie, who was active in New York from 1838 to 1855. James Baillie started as a framer in 1838, and then became an artist and lithographer in 1843 or 1844. He discovered how to color lithographs while working as an independent contractor for Currier & Ives in the mid 1840s. He was a prolific lithographer and colorist for Currier & Ives, and his prints were extremely popular with a wide distribution. James Baillie spent his later years concentrating on painting instead of lithography.
This colored print is an interior scene depicting a well-dressed young man walking away from a table with his hand over his eyes, apparently in disbelief and shame. Two women (of easy virtue) and three men remain at the table playing cards. A waiter or servant stands in a corner opening a bottle, while a fifth man is standing above the table with a glass in one hand and a bottle of wine or liquor in the other. Thus, the scene depicts all of the worldly vices that Victorian-era gentlemen were taught to shun: gambling, drinking, and engaging in riotous behavior.
The parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son is among the best-known Christian morality tales and is found in Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of the two sons demands his share of his father’s estate which the father gives him. Shortly after, he runs off and squanders the wealth “in wild living.” Finding himself destitute, he returns to his father, repents his ways, and begs to be allowed to serve as a hired servant. The father rejoices at the return of his son “who was lost and is found.” Meanwhile, the obedient, older son is angry and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him to forgive and to understand his joy.
This print was produced by Henry R. Robinson, who was a caricaturist and lithographer in New York City. He was listed as a carver and gilder from 1833-34, as a caricaturist from 1836-43 and as a lithographer and print publisher from 1843-51. Henry Robinson was known for political prints that championed the causes of the Whig Party (which later merged with the Republican Party) and satirized the opposing Democratic Party. Historian Peter C. Welsh has called Henry Robinson the "Printmaker to the Whig Party."
This image is identical to the same titled print at the Connecticut Historical Society by D. W. Kellogg though it could also possibly by an unsigned copy by Currier & Ives. Hand colored print of a animals filing two by two onto the ark. Animals include zebra, cows, horses, sheep, pigs, giraffes, dogs, and cats. Birds are flying above.
Noah’s Ark, an Old Testament story, appealed to 19th-century children as part of their Bible study. The animals also appeared in the form of games and toys. Prints of religious scenes and other uplifting subjects were recommended as encouraging moral improvement, especially for the benefit of children. In the Bible (Genesis, Chapters 6-9), the ark is described as a massive wooden ship built at God’s command that saved pious Noah, his family, and representatives of every kind of animal from the global flood that God wrought to punish humanity for its misdeeds. After the waters receded, Noah’s family, with all the animals that were saved, eventually spread throughout the world. The story of Noah is repeated with variations in the Quran.
This print is attributed to D. W. Kellogg & Co. While it is unsigned, this image is identical to the same titled print at the Connecticut Historical Society by D. W. Kellogg. Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874) founded D. W. Kellogg and Company in Hartford, Connecticut in 1830. Even before its first retail store opened in 1834, the D.W. Kellogg & Co. lithography firm was well established and popular in United States, particularly in the South and the Southwest. As the founding member of the family company, Daniel Wright Kellogg was responsible for the initial growth and popularity of the firm. After he left the company, it continued to flourish for decades under his younger brothers and other family members.
This black and white print depicts Jesus Christ with four little children, three men and three women. All of the figures are wearing stylized flowing robes. Christ is shown placing his right hand on a boy’s head in blessing, while his left arm is gently around a young girl. Two of the mothers are kneeling and looking reverently at the figure of Christ. The apostle Matthew recounts an occasion when families brought their children to Jesus for his blessing, only to be rebuked by his disciples. In response, Christ said: "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these" (Chapter 19:13-14).
The print is titled in pencil script below the image as “Christ Blessing Little Children.” The image is of an 1866 Currier & Ives print entitled Jesus Blessing Little Children. This print could be a proof before letters print or a copy of the Currier & Ives print, but it is unsigned with no indication of the original artist, lithographer, or publisher.
Nathaniel Currier (1813-1888) was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, and after serving an apprenticeship in Boston, he moved to New York City in 1834. In New York, he briefly partnered with Adam Stodart, but their firm dissolved within a year, and Currier went into business on his own until 1857. James M. Ives (1824-1895) was a native New York lithographer who was hired as a bookkeeper by Currier in 1852. In 1857, the two men partnered, forming the famous lithography firm of Currier and Ives, which continued under their sons until 1907.
This colored print shows a couple in various stages of a relationship. The figures are depicted on ascending steps, from "Quizzing" on the lower left to the top center, titled "The Marriage", and then descending to the last step at bottom right, titled "The Divorce". Allegorical vignettes below the figures also depict each stage. In the center are verses that corresponded with each scene. This comic print presents an image similar to the popular ladders or stairs of life prints which first appeared in the 16th Century but were popular as 19th Century prints.
This print was produced by the lithography company, E. C. Kellogg and Company. The company was a continuation of the Kellogg family firm. In 1851, after the brief partnership of Kellogg & Comstock disbanded, E.C. Kellogg continued running the business under the name E.C. Kellogg & Co. His brother, E.B. Kellogg, rejoined the firm in 1855, and it became known as E.B. & E.C. Kellogg and Company.
This hand-colored print depicts an interior scene of an unmarried man opening a large basket that contains two infants. The man wears a long coat, vest, high collar, bow tie and plaid trousers. An unopened letter lies on the floor near the basket. He has a look of dismay as he peers down on the unruly infants and realizes his responsibilities for the babies. A family of four looks on gleefully through a door in the background. Also in the background are a picture on the wall of a man on horseback, flowered wallpaper, and a patterned rug.
Thomas W. Strong, a wood engraver and lithographer who worked in New York City from 1842-1851 produced this print. After 1851 he was listed as a publisher. Strong's prints included commentaries on social and moral themes as well as cartoons and funny valentines.
This hand colored print depicts a tree labeled "Hope" and "Love" growing from soil marked "Faith" and "Repentance". Above the tree the word "Grace" appears. There are two angels at the foot of the tree. One is pushing away the devil who carries an axe; the other is watering the tree from a watering can. The tree bears fruit labeled with various Christian virtues such as justice, chastity, goodness, industry, purity and so forth. The inscription below the image explains its Biblical inspiration is Psalm 1, Verse 3: “And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.”
This print was based on a 1791 print, The Tree of Life by John Hagerty. It was produced by the lithographic firm E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872) and Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881) were brothers of the founder of the Kellogg lithography firm, Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874). After D.W. Kellogg moved west, his two brothers took over the family lithography firm in 1840 and changed the name to E.B. & E.C. Kellogg. The younger two of the four Kellogg brothers, they were responsible for the continued success of the family firm. These two brothers were also involved in the eventual partnerships between the company and Horace Thayer in 1845 or 1846, John Chenevard Comstock (1818-1862) in 1848 and William Henry Bulkeley (1840-1902) in 1867.
This 1877 black and white memorial print depicts an idealized cemetery and the "Promised Land," separated by a river. On the left side, people can be seen entering the cemetery in carriages. On the right side, a small boat ferries people across the river where they are met by a group of white robed figures, likely angels. The memorial text to a Mrs. Eratus Kilbourn is located in the center, however there is not indcation as to which Eratus Kilbourn and which wife.
This print was produced by Strobridge and Company. The Strobridge lithography company was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio about 1847 by lithographer Elijah C. Middleton. Middleton was known as one of the pioneers of chromolithography in the United States. By 1854 lithographer W. R. Wallace and bookseller Hines Strobridge (1823-1909) had joined the firm as partners. After the Civil War Strobridge acquired sole ownership of the company and renamed it after himself. Strobridge and Company was especially well known for circus, theater and movie posters. After leaving Strobridge and Company, Elijah Middleton became known as a portrait publisher, producing prints of George and Martha Washington, Daniel Webster and other American historical figures.
This colored print is an outdoor scene of a young man in tattered clothing on his knee asking forgiveness from his father. The father is weeping tears of joy at his return. Behind them a small band plays while a dozen people dance in celebration. The setting is the courtyard of a grand white country mansion.
The parable of the Prodigal Son or the Lost Son is among the best- known Christian morality tales and is found in Luke 15:11-32. The youngest of the two sons demands his share of his father’s estate which the father gives him. Shortly after, he runs off and squanders the wealth “in wild living.” Finding himself destitute, he returns to his father, repents his ways, and begs to be allowed to serve as a hired servant. The father rejoices at the return of his son “who was lost and is found.” Meanwhile, the obedient, older son is angry and refuses to join the celebration. His father pleads with him to forgive and to understand his joy.
This print was produced by Henry R. Robinson, who was a caricaturist and lithographer in New York City. He was listed as a carver and gilder from 1833-34, as a caricaturist from 1836-43 and as a lithographer and print publisher from 1843-51. Henry Robinson was known for political prints that championed the causes of the Whig Party (which later merged with the Republican Party) and satirized the opposing Democratic Party. Historian Peter C. Welsh has called Henry Robinson the "Printmaker to the Whig Party."