9 facts about James Merritt Ives

James Merritt Ives (March 5, 1824 – January 3, 1895) was an American lithographer, bookkeeper, and businessman. He oversaw the event and financial side of the firm, Currier and Ives, which he co-managed when his business partner, Nathaniel Currier.

Ives was born on March 5, 1824 in New York City, New York. His dad worked as the superintendent of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. A self-trained artist, Ives’s art education included visits to art galleries and the Astor Library. Although he went to affect at the age of 12, he continued his art education upon his own.

On June 24, 1846, he married Caroline Clark (1827–1896). The couple had six children, two sons and four daughters. Caroline was the sister-in-law of Nathaniel Currier’s brother, Charles Currier. Charles recommended Ives to Nathaniel, who hired him as a bookkeeper in 1852 for his firm, N. Currier, Lithographer.

It soon became apparent that Ives’ talent as an artist and artistic knowledge gave him necessary insight into what the public wanted, and his skills in thing and publicity contributed significantly to the lump of the company. Ives helped to enlarge and amend Currier’s bookkeeping methods, reorganize the firm’s inventory, and streamline production methods. In 1857, Currier offered Ives a full partnership in the firm, now called Currier and Ives, and made the younger man the general manager. In his other position Ives helped Currier interview potential artists and craftsman, and pick images that the pure would publish. It was Ives who encouraged production of the idealized images of daily center class American enthusiasm that made the unconditional so successful.

The fixed of Currier and Ives was known for its popular and affordable art prints of subjects such as winter scenes, landscapes, sporting events, ships, and icons of 19th century life. These prints are yet widely sought after by collectors today. Ives worked over forty years at the conclusive until his death in Rye, New York in 1895. He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, New York. After Ives’s death, his sons and Currier’s sons continued to manage the definite until it was liquidated in 1907.