Currier & Ives’ Secret - Racist Prints Sold Well
Tuesday, July 30th, 2013What is your mental image, when you see the words, Currier & Ives?
A snow scene? A sleigh? The verdant countryside?
You will think differently, in a moment.
Admirers will be amazed and disgusted to know that of the pair’s most successful sales were 75 separate color lithograph images, which hatefully portrayed African-Americans in the most horrific examples of racism imaginable.
[These prints, and the stories behind them can be seen at Booktryst.com in its "The Dark Side of Currier & Ives" entry.]
The Ohio History Center has copies of these eye-opening prints in its “Controversy 2: Things We Don’t Talk About” exhibit room. You will leave it with a new view of Currier & Ives.
My wife and I discovered and were stunned by their ‘artistic’ shame, on a recent visit to Columbus, Ohio.