This black and white print is a membership certificate with a decorated vignette depicting a group of people near a stream. A man stands in front of the group holding a glass and lecturing. A tavern or inn is in the right background. Two men are fighting in front of the building while a third man stands observing the larger group of people.
This print was produced by Thomas Sinclair (ca. 1805-1881). Sinclair was a lithographer based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A native of Scotland, he was trained in art and lithography in Edinburgh, and immigrated to Philadelphia in 1833. In 1854, Sinclair and his brother William Sinclair created the firm Thomas Sinclair & Company and worked together until 1859. In 1870, his son John C. Sinclair joined the company and it was renamed T. Sinclair & Son Lithography Company. Thomas Sinclair remained active in the firm until his death in 1881 and his son continued to run it until 1889.
This hand-colored print of an outdoor scene depicts two women standing on either side of a young man. The woman on the right is dressed in red, holding the young man's arm, and appears to be tempting him with a glass of wine. A snake or serpent emerges from a pot on the right, behind the woman in red reinforcing the image of the woman in red as aligned with evil. The young man holds a water goblet in his right hand while a young woman in white looks on from the left side of the print. The scene is enclosed in a Gothic border, produced during the Gothic Revival period, and has a banner below the image that proclaims “Love, Purity, & Fidelity.”
This print was produced by the lithographic firm of Kelloggs & Comstock in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1848, John Chenevard Comstock (1818-1862) formed a partnership with E.B. and E.C. Kellogg. In 1850, Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872) left the firm, leaving his brother Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881) and J.C. Comstock to run the lithography firm as Kellogg and Comstock. The short-lived partnership disbanded in 1851. It was not until 1855 that Edmund Burke Kellogg rejoined his brother E.C. Kellogg and continued the successful operation of the family’s lithography firm. The print was distributed by D. Needham of New York City. Nathaniel Currier produced a similar print.
This hand colored lithographic print depicts the heads of three horses drinking at a water trough. The horse on the far left has his mouth in the water. The two horses on the right have raised their heads, and water drips from their mouths in a thin stream. Water flows into the trough from a stone or clay pipe on the left. A vine is on the left and a branch with leaves is in the right foreground.
The print is a copy based on an 1847 painting by John Frederick Herring Sr., which hangs in the Tate Gallery. The original painting was so popular that it was widely reproduced as a print (lithographs and engravings). The Kellogg version may have been inspired by the "Cold Water Army" a children's group who pledged to drink large quantities of cold water instead of alcohol and who were sponsored by the Connecticut Temperance Society, which was based in Hartford with the Kellogg family of lithographers and publishers. The image is also known to have been used as a basis for the children's story about the dangers of consuming alcohol. By 1917, the image was promoted as a picture for use "in schools and for schoolroom decoration."
This print was produced by lithographer Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881). He was the youngest of the four Kellogg brothers, all of whom were lithographers. The brothers were born in Tolland, Connecticut, a small town located near where the family business was established in Hartford. E.C. Kellogg was the only brother among the Kelloggs to receive his professional training in Hartford. In 1840, Elijah Chapman Kellogg, along with his brother Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872), took over the D. W. Kellogg & Co. after Daniel Wright Kellogg (1807-1874), its founder, moved west. Elijah and Edmund Kellogg were responsible for most of the company’s future partnerships. Elijah Chapman Kellogg retired in 1867.
The original artist, John Frederick Herring (1795-1865) was a stage driver and painter known for attending horse races and specializing in painting horses in England.
Black and white print of the lavishly decorated “Gem Saloon,” known for containing the city's largest mirror. The top of the mirror features a large eagle. The “Gem Saloon” was located in a hotel on the corner of Broadway and Anthony (now Worth Street) in New York City. Mayor Fernando Wood and eleven male politicians and businessmen are depicted drinking and conversing along with two bartenders and a dog. The title refers to the debate that was raging over the regulation of alcohol and a temperance movement that was launched in 1850 by the mayor of Portland, Maine in 1850. The Maine state bill forbid all alcoholic purchases except for "medicinal, mechanical or manufacturing purposes", resulting in an increase of alcoholic “quackery” medicines. Several other cities and states followed Maine’s example in legislation. In New York liquor law was passed in 1854 but vetoed by Governor Horatio Seymour. Then in 1855, with a new administration, the "Maine Law" was passed in New York, though it was never strictly enforced.
Augustus Fay was an engraver, lithographer and illustrator born in New York in 1824. He was active as an engraver in New York City 1848-1860, and as a lithographer in Hoboken, New Jersey and in New York in the 1850s.
This hand colored print depicts an interior scene of a cottage with two men, a woman and four children. The two men are seated, one in an armchair and the other in a basketry chair. The man dressed in black sits in an armchair being served a drink by children. He appears to be a visitor. The other man, dressed in white, holds his head and looks ill. The woman holds a baby while another child leans on the knee of the sick man. A young boy plays at a table next to the man in white.
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 a man named Stodart. 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 depicts a farmer stopping for a drink at an establishment "licensed to retail spirits." He is offering a paper, presumably the mortgage for his farm, in payment of the alcohol. A hay wagon pulled by oxen waits in the road. A distillery is visible in the background with a cross above its chimney indicating its priority to serious drinkers. A verse describing the evils of drink appears below the title. In the companion print, Lifting the Mortgage (DL.60.2983), the farmer redeems himself by signing a temperance pledge.
This print was produced by Pendleton's Lithography. John B. Pendleton (1798-1866) was one of America's earliest lithographers. Along with his brother William Pendleton (1795-1879), he started a lithograph printing house in Boston in 1825. The firm printed portraits, landscapes, sheet music covers, and other illustrations. Not long after it opened in Boston, the Pendleton brothers moved their lithograph business to New York City. In 1829 or 1830, John B. Pendleton moved to Philadelphia and briefly operated the firm Pendleton, Kearny, & Childs with Francis Kearny (1785-1837) and Cephas G. Childs (1793-1888). Pendleton then worked as a carpenter and proprietor of a planning mill until 1851.
This black and white print depicts a man seated at a table, with a dog at his feet. The man in the center of the print is signing a temperance pledge to give up “Strong Drink” with "total abstinence." A well-dressed man, perhaps the holder of the mortgage, looks on. A woman, young daughter and baby are in the background looking relieved as the home appears to be deteriorating. A man in rags, probably the farmer’s drinking partner, is carrying a bottle and seen departing. The companion print, Mortgaging the Farm, depicts the farmer trading a mortgage on his farm for alchol. (DL.60.2982)
This print was produced by Pendleton's Lithography. John B. Pendleton (1798-1866) was one of America's earliest lithographers. Along with his brother William Pendleton (1795-1879), he started a lithograph printing house in Boston in 1825. The firm printed portraits, landscapes, sheet music covers, and other illustrations. Not long after it opened in Boston, the Pendleton brothers moved their lithograph business to New York City. In 1829 or 1830, John B. Pendleton moved to Philadelphia and briefly operated the firm Pendleton, Kearny, & Childs with Francis Kearny (1785-1837) and Cephas G. Childs (1793-1888). Pendleton then worked as a carpenter and proprietor of a planning mill until 1851.
This colored print is an interior scene depicting two men in formal dress standing in front of a window. They are both wearing badges on ribbons and one holds a document containing a temperance pledge.
This print was produced by the lithographic firm of Kelloggs & Comstock in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1848, John Chenevard Comstock (1818-1862) formed a partnership with E.B. and E.C. Kellogg. In 1850, Edmund Burke Kellogg (1809-1872) left the firm, leaving his brother Elijah Chapman Kellogg (1811-1881) and J.C. Comstock to run the lithography firm as Kellogg and Comstock. The short-lived partnership disbanded in 1851. It was not until 1855 that Edmund Burke Kellogg rejoined his brother E.C. Kellogg and continued the successful operation of the family’s lithography firm. The print was distributed by D. Needham of New York City.
This full-length, hand-colored print depicts a young man wearing a badge on a ribbon around his neck that hangs to his waist. He is holding a scroll with a pledge of temperance. The pledge reads, "No brother shall make, buy, sell or use as a beverage any spirituous or malt, liquors, wine, or cider." There is heavy red drapery with a tassel hanging behind him.
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 mid1840s. 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 full length, hand-colored portrait print depicts a man wearing a badge on a ribbon. He is leaning on a pillar inscribed with a triangle labeled "PURITY","FIDELITY","LOVE", a temperance pledge and a list of founders. A swan fountain is depicted in the left background.
This print was produced by John H. Hall and Elisha Forbes. A native of Cooperstown, New York, John H. Hall worked as an engraving apprentice in Albany in 1825. Then he spent a year in New York City with Dr. Alexander Anderson learning wood engraving. He returned to Albany after a year and trained Nathaniel Orr in engraving. He worked until 1848 in Albany as a partner at Hall, Packard, and Cushman (1838) and Hall & Cushman (1839). He also was active in Lancaster, Massachusetts and Boston. He was a founder of the Boston Bewick Company in 1834 and is better known as an engraver and for his illustrations in Manual of Ornithology. He moved to California in 1849 to join the Gold Rush and died there. Elisha Forbes was a wood engraver who worked in New Orleans in 1830 before moving to New York City and working there from 1833-1846.