A native of Germany, Louis Maurer, immigrated to America in 1851 with his family, having trained as in mechanical drawing, anatomy, lithography and ivory carving. He had also helped his father with cabinet making.

Maurer took a job for eight years as a lithographer for Currier and Ives, earning a beginning salary of five dollars a week. He became known especially for his prints of trotting horses, and one of his most famous series was called The Life of a Fireman. He developed a system whereby several artists worked on a single print, with each having their specialty. He and Arthur Fitzwilliam Tait painted Indian and western subjects, and plagiarized their early efforts from pictures they found in ...