American Historical
Print Collectors Society

September 19th marks the 139th anniversary of the death of James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States. Garfield died from infection a little more than two months after he was shot by an assassin on July 2, 1881, in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art hold an interesting letter from Read More

A collector recently queried us about a print she had of “Little Fannie” published by Currier & Ives. The collector wanted to know: Was this a famous child? How had Fannie ended up immortalized in a print? Who was Fannie? The truth is that Little Fannie could have easily have been Little Mary or Little Read More

A print collector recently contacted AHPCS asking if we could provide any insight into two 1849 Nathaniel Currier prints lacking the predictable 152 Nassau Street address. (James Ives didn’t become a partner until 1857.) For a typical 1849 Currier print, like Louisa below, one expects to see “152 Nassau St.” printed somewhere in the bottom Read More

The Brooklyn Bridge turns 137 years old today! After more than 13 years of construction, the bridge opened on May 24, 1883, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn across the East River. At the time, it was the longest suspension bridge in the world. Its distinctive architecture has inspired art in a variety of mediums–including prints. Here Read More

Fanny Palmer was one of Currier & Ives’ most important and prolific artists — and her oeuvre of nearly 300 prints gives the impression of artistic invincibility. But in the small book Currier & Ives (1950), Frederic A. Conningham notes: “The only type of work she did not do was the horse racing print. According Read More

The 53rd California International Antiquarian Book Fair was in Pasadena on February 7-9. One of the highlights was a featured talk by Lisa Unger Baskin. Baskin is the collector behind Five Hundred Years of Women’s Work, which was the largest collection of women’s history material in private hands before being acquired by Duke University’s Rubenstein Read More

  The Lynch Archives is one of the premier private collections of American sheet music. Kevin Hugh Lynch is a steward of the Lynch Archives, begun more than one hundred years ago by his father, band leader and art dealer Francis Lynch. The collection of published popular music dating from 1736 to 1987 is uniquely Read More

The Lynch Archives is one of the premier private collections of American sheet music. Kevin Hugh Lynch is a steward of the Lynch Archives, begun more than one hundred years ago by his father, band leader and art dealer Francis Lynch. The collection of published popular music dating from 1736 to 1987 is uniquely sorted Read More

Before radio, records, CDs, or MP3s, if most Americans wanted to hear music, they needed to create it themselves. As the growing American middle class of the 19th century eagerly purchased pianos and other musical instruments for their homes, they also bought sheet music. By 1855, one New York publishing house was advertising a stock Read More