Washington's Reception by the Ladies on Passing the Bridge at Trenton, N.J., April 1789, on His Way to be Inaugurated First President of the United States 1845

This print, made by Nathaniel Currier in 19th-century America, celebrates George Washington’s passage through Trenton, New Jersey on his way to his first inauguration. It’s a lithograph, meaning the image was drawn with a greasy crayon onto a flat stone, treated with chemicals, and then printed. Lithography was a relatively new technology at the time, allowing for mass production of images like this. Currier and his partner James Merritt Ives, were masters of this medium, capitalizing on the growing market for affordable prints that captured popular events and figures. The process allowed for a high level of detail, evident in the rendering of Washington and the surrounding crowd, offering a glimpse into the culture of hero-worship and the burgeoning national identity of the United States. Though mass-produced, each print involved skilled labor, from the artist who created the original drawing to the workers who operated the printing presses. By understanding the materials and processes behind this print, we gain insight into the social and economic forces that shaped its creation and reception. It's a reminder that even seemingly simple images can tell complex stories about art, labor, and the making of a nation.