APUSH Collateral: A Thing of Beauty is a Joy EverlastingThe Destruction of Tea in Boston Harbor was lithographed in 1846 by the firm of Currier and Ives, and the artist of the artwork was Nathaniel Currier. Nathaniel was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on March 27, 1813. His parents were Nathaniel and Hannah Currier, who were distant cousins. When Nathaniel was eight, his father died, leaving Nathaniel, eight, and his older brother Lorenzo, eleven, to support their younger sister Elizabeth, six, and brother Charles (Cunningham, two) . He spent his time doing odd jobs to support the family, but at the age of fifteen he apprenticed in the Boston lithography workshop of William and John Pendleton, who were the first successful lithographers in the United States (Lebeau). In 1835, Currier successfully established his own lithography business, Currier & Ives, which created his legacy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The subject of the painting, The Destruction of Tea in Boston Harbor, is the dumping of tea into the water by men dressed as Indians. The painting also shows other settlers cheering these men on as they throw the tea into the harbor. The purpose of this work is to describe the rebellion of the English colonists during the period preceding the American Revolution. It is interesting to note that this lithograph is the only pre-war event of the Revolution that the Currier and Ives company chose to illustrate (Lebeau 52). His tone in the painting implies that he favored the settlers since the painting depicts the settlers as having complete control over the situation. Currier's attitude in his painting is positive, which can be confirmed by the fact that he depicts the settlers in a decent manner applauding the organized destruction of the tea. Even those destroying the tea seem calm and their actions are well organized as they drop entire chests of tea into Boston Harbor. Currier's attitude revealed in the description of the event makes it appear that the rebels were justified in dumping the tea into the harbor, thus showing his optimistic views regarding the Boston Tea Party. His positive view of the event is skewed given the fact that he was apprenticed to a Boston lithographer and grew up at a time when the city had a revived attitude toward tea action (Young 184). Another factor to consider was that Currier was making this painting in order to sell it to other Americans, which could also influence his optimistic depiction of this event. The painting depicts only American settlers and shows no British influence, although an account by George Robert Twelve Hewes, a Boston shoemaker who participated in the Boston Tea Party, said: "We were surrounded by British armed ships." . (Young 30 years old). This work of art was well known at the time and was sold for several decades at the Currier & Ives store located in New York, and sold by peddlers throughout the country (Young 184). The event depicted in the artwork is known today as the Boston Tea Party. On December 16, 1773, a group of Bostonians protested the East India Company's recently granted monopoly on importing American tea by Parliament and seized 342 cases of tea in a nighttime raid on three tea ships. and threw them into the harbor (Kennedy and Cohen 121). Nathaniel Currier's lithograph does not accurately depict the events of the Boston Tea Party. The painting includes only two ships, but in.