The City of Chicago
Bird’s-eye View by Currier & Ives, 1874

This item is sold.  It has been placed here in our online archives as a service for researchers and collectors.

The City of Chicago
The City of Chicago

Detail of foreground


The City of Chicago

Detail of middle distance


The City of Chicago

Detail of title and key beneath map


The City of Chicago

Framed

Charles Parsons and Lyman Atwater (artists and lithographers)
The City of Chicago
Currier & Ives, New York: 1874
Hand-colored lithograph
20.5 x 32.5 inches, image
23.75 x 34.25 inches, mat window
25 x 35.25 inches, overall
35 x 46 inches, framed
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Large bird’s-eye view of Chicago with the Lake Michigan shoreline and mouth of the Chicago River in the foreground.  It was published three years after the great fire of 1871, although it is difficult to see the fire’s effects, since rebuilding proceeded rapidly.  Sailboats and steamboats fill the busy harbor.  There is a key to the view in lower margin indicating the neighborhoods and landmarks directly above each caption, including parks, churches, boulevards, major buildings such as City Hall and the Tribune building, grain elevators, water works, stockyards, and racetracks.  This is among several bird’s-eye views of American cities made by Parsons & Atwater for Currier & Ives during the same period, including views of Boston, New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia and Newark.  Currier & Ives reissued this Chicago view in 1892 for the World’s Columbia Exposition.

Charles Parsons was a British-born artist who emigrated to America as a child.  He painted in oil and watercolor as well as working in lithography.   At age 12 he was apprenticed to the New York lithographer George Endicott, and was associated with Endicott & Company until 1861, when he became head of the art department of Harper & Brothers, where he remained until retirement in 1889.  He was elected an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design in 1862 and also was a member of the New York Water Color Society.  Parsons is perhaps best known for his role in helping to create the classic look of Currier & Ives’ popular lithographs, along with the artists Louis Maurer, Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait, Fanny Palmer, Thomas Worth and George Henry Durrie (Bonfante-Warren).

The lithography firm of Currier & Ives was founded in 1834 by Nathaniel Currier as N. Currier, Lithographer, and based in New York.  In 1852, he brought his brother-in-law, James Merritt Ives, into the business and renamed the firm Currier & Ives five years later.  They were extremely prolific and highly successful, producing almost 7,500 different separately issued art prints through the 19th century until 1907, aptly advertising themselves as "Print-makers to the American People."  Their prints were issued in either small, medium or large folio, though some particularly popular images were issued in more than one size.  Dozens of American artists in the mid 19th century painted primarily for lithographic reproduction by Currier & Ives and other firms. To please a broad audience, the firm presented a warmly positive vision of America, frequently sentimental, and sometimes with a touch of humor.  Currier & Ives prints generally portrayed the American landscape, scenery and landmarks, including the westward expansion, as well as daily life in both urban and rural settings.  Their sporting and maritime subjects were particularly popular.  These prints are now highly collectible as records of American history, as fine works of American art, and for their decorative appeal.

Full publication information: “Sketched & Drawn on Stone by Parsons & Atwater.  Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1874 by Currier & Ives, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.  New York.  Published by Currier & Ives, 125 Nassau Street.”

References:

Bonfante-Warren, Alexandra.  Currier & Ives: Portraits of a Nation.  New York: Metro Books, 1998.  pp. 9, 23-41, 49.

Conningham, Frederic A.  Currier and Ives Prints: An Illustrated Check List.  New York: Crown, 1949.  1095.

Currier & Ives: A Catalogue Raisonné.Detroit, MI: Gale Research, c1983, no. 1207.

Fielding, Mantle.  Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers.  Green Farms, Connecticut: Modern Books and Crafts, 1926, rev. ed. 1974.  p. 271 (Parsons).

Groce, George C. and Wallace, David H.  The New-York Historical Society’s Dictionary of Artists in America 1564-1860.  New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969.  p. 489 (Parsons).

Hébert, John R., ed., rev. by Patrick E. Dempsey.  Panoramic Maps of Cities in the United States and Canada.  2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1984.  149.2.

Reps, John W. Bird’s Eye Views: Historic Lithographs of North American Cities.  New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.  p. 67.