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Sloop Yacht, Volunteer

Date1887

MediumCommercial lithograph

Dimensionssheet: 12 7/8 × 16 in. (32.7 × 40.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. James Calhoun, 1972

Object number1972-12

On View

Not on view

Label TextThe description "Modelled by Edward Burgess of Boston for Genl. C.J. Paine" refers to the ship's designer and to the yachtsman - a retired Army General - who commissioned it as a racing yacht to compete in the America’s Cup. The Volunteer won the 1887 Cup against the Scottish sloop Thistle, also represented in a Currier and Ives print.

From 1834 to 1907 the firm of Currier and Ives produced prints representing America's transition from an agricultural society to an industrialized and urbanized one. With the slogan "Colored Engravings for the People," the firm used the then relatively new process of lithography and engaged many of the period's best known artists. The firm supplied both "rush" prints - immediate visual reports of major newsworthy events - and "stock" prints, which were depictions of various subjects of American life, including sports, the home, religion, entertainment, and landscape and cityscape views. Ship "portraits" were among the most popular and enduring of the firm's work.