Education
Maurer was born in Biebrich, Germany, and studied anatomy, mechanical drawing, and lithography in Mainz before immigrating to the United States in 1851.
Maurer was born in Biebrich, Germany, and studied anatomy, mechanical drawing, and lithography in Mainz before immigrating to the United States in 1851.
He was the last surviving artist known to have been employed by Currier and Ives. Prior to his death, Maurer was extensively interviewed about the firm by collector and connoisseur Harry T. Peters for his book Currier & Ives, Printmakers to the American People. He began working as a lithographer at the firm of T.W. Strong in 1852.
Later that same year he joined Currier and Ives, working there until 1860.
Maurer"s series The Life of a Fireman (1854) was a popular lithography series produced for Currier and Ives. (These prints inspired sculptor John A Wilson"s Firemen"s Memorial)
During the American Civil War, Maurer worked as a shooting instructor in Palisades Park.
Maurer began to study art in an academic setting at the age of fifty, first at the Gotham Art Academy and later at the National Academy under William Merritt Chase. Maurer"s archives are located at the American Antiquarian Society.