Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast (1840-1902)
“He has been called, perhaps not with accuracy, but with substantial justice, the Father of American Caricature.”
~Thomas Nast’s obituary, printed in Harper’s Weekly, 1902
Thomas Nast was born in Landau, Germany, on September 26, 1840. Nast and his family immigrated to the United States in 1846 and resided in New York City. In 1854, Nast began studying art with Theodore Kaufmann. The next year he worked at the Thomas Jefferson Bryant Gallery of “Christian art,” where he also copied the historical paintings in Bryant’s collection. At age 15, he was hired as a reportorial artist for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper. In 1859 he began work at the New York Illustrated News.
However, the work for which Nast became most famous was as Civil War illustrator for Harper’s Weekly. He is fondly remembered as the originator of our popular image of Santa Claus, the Republican Elephant, and the Democratic Donkey. One of Nast’s cartoons was said to have re-elected Lincoln in 1864, and Lincoln himself commented that Nast was his best recruiting sergeant. Grant attributed his election as President in 1868 “to the sword of [General Phil] Sheridan and the pencil of Nast.”
Thomas Nast left Harper’s Weekly in late 1886 to freelance for a variety of magazines. Then in September 1892 he established Nast’s Weekly, which lasted less than six months. By1902 he was desperate for work and accepted President Theodore Roosevelt’s appointment to serve as consul general to Ecuador. Nast died in Ecuador of yellow fever at age 62 a mere six months into his appointment.
In an article titled “Nast, Gladiator of the Political Pencil,” William Murrell states, “Nast is often spoken of as the first great American cartoonist. In a very real sense he was the last. For while it is true that many of his symbols and devices have become part of the cartoonist’s stock in trade … his attitude was a complete flowering of the older tradition—a tradition of ruthless, two-fisted attack.” Today, as then, Nast is remembered as one of the greatest American illustrators and cartoonists.