1874

Eastern and Maine Central Rail Road Line. Direct Through Route to the Rangeleys, Moosehead Lake, Mt. Desert and White Mountains

American, 1844 - 1920

The nineteenth-century New York printmaking firm Currier & Ives published thousands of lithographic prints that adorned private homes across America. The images ranged from delicate still-lifes and small landscapes to compositions intended to captivate the public with their bold color and grand scale. While most publishers waited for customers to place orders, Currier & Ives hired artists to draw and print with the expectation that buyers would follow. The bustling firm also collaborated with railways to produce portraits of locomotives to lure fresh travelers. Depictions such as this one, made for the Eastern and Maine Central Rail Road Line, were often reissued with the same illustration appearing under a different company name. The pictorial announcements on the border promote a variety of local services---from hotels to hatmakers---emphasizing the image's function as both art and advertising.