The True Peace Commissioners
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
Sheet: 13 1/2 × 17 15/16 in. (34.3 × 45.5 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of A. S. Colgate, 1952
Accession Number
52.632.219
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in 1865 by the renowned firm Currier & Ives, *The True Peace Commissioners* is a hand-colored lithograph that captures the closing chapter of the American Civil War through sharp political satire. The print gathers key Union and Confederate figures—Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, David Farragut, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis—into a single imagined scene, presenting them as the unlikely “commissioners” who would finally bring peace. Lithography allowed Currier & Ives to produce affordable, widely circulated images that shaped popular opinion during this turbulent period. The sheet’s modest size made it suitable for framing in homes or offices, turning a complex political moment into an accessible visual commentary. Today the work offers modern viewers a window into how Americans processed the war’s end, using humor and caricature to reflect both hope and lingering division.
About the Artist
Robert E. Lee|William Tecumseh Sherman|Abraham Lincoln|Major General Philip Henry Sheridan|David Glasgow Farragut|Jefferson Davis|Currier & Ives|Ulysses S. Grant (American|American|American|American|American, born Scotland|American) · 1807 |1810 |1822 |1857 |1828 |1824 –1870 |1886 |1885 |1907 |1896 |1895
American, Westmoreland County, Virginia 1807–1870 Lexington, Virginia|American, 1810–1886|American, Point Pleasant, Ohio 1822–1885 Mount McGregor, New York|American, active New York, 1857–1907|American, born Scotland, ca. 1828–after 1896 New York|American, New York 1824–1895 New York