Aquatint, Lithograph, and the Instant · The American Trotter
The Celebrated Trotting Mare Flora Temple, Driven by James D. McMann
Currier & Ives, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1859 · hand-coloured lithograph
What it is
Flora Temple, the bobtail mare, driven flat out by James D. McMann, her recorded harness times printed straight into the sheet's own title.
Why it matters
Flora Temple was the horse that first trotted a mile under 2:20, and Currier & Ives sold that broken barrier as hard as they sold her likeness.
What to notice
The docked tail, cropped tight, the detail her nickname was built on.
A stopwatch made her famous before a painter ever did.
Provenance
- Maker
- Currier & Ives, hand-coloured lithograph, c.1859
- Era
- The Victorian Turf (1837–1901)
- Chapter
- The String at Full Stretch
- Medium
- hand-coloured lithograph
- Made
- 1859
- Horse
- Flora Temple
- Figure
- James D. McMann
- Source
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division (LCCN 90715598)
Publicity
Clear — the historic British turf (the Victorian jockeys, the Vanity Fair subjects): a long-deceased figure with no post-mortem right of publicity in play. Sold as history, freely and openly.
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the work’s own year of publication. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-20.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 27x41" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
More from the Stable Wall
Steeplechasing — The Start
‘Elis’, Winner of the St Leger, 1836
Fores’s National Sports — The Run In
The Trotting Mare Nancy Hanks
Elsewhere in the family
- The Links — the other morning religion.
- Painted Lineage — the bloodline, beside the family line.
- Painted Earth — home ground as a period map.