American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography

17 1/4 x 11 in. lithograph (sight), framed to approx. 31 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. Title and copyright printed beneath image. A vibrantly colored illustration featuring various vessels providing passage to California, including sailing ships, a parachute, an airship, and a rocket. Text representing speech coming from the sundry passengers pokes fun at their various methods of transport, while speech coming from the eager men on shore highlights their desire to get aboard.

Currier produced numerous prints satirizing the mad rush for the gold fields of California. In this print and its counterpart, The Way They Came From California (see Lot 213), special emphasis is placed upon the apparently equivalent desperation of men eager to get to California and (once they've acquired some gold) to get back from California. All were originally issued as black and white depictions; this lithograph and others from the same series in this auction, have later applied coloring.