Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast was an illustrator and cartoonist who came to be known as the “father of the American cartoon.” While Nast initially rose to prominence with his editorial illustrations of Civil War battles, he is best known for political cartoons that satirized the major issues of his time, from the Civil War and Reconstruction to the 19th-century politician “Boss” Tweed and his Democratic political machine Tammany Hall. As an influential voice in American politics, his illustrations helped garner support for the Union Army, contributing to the discourse around six presidential elections between 1864 and 1884. He is responsible for our associations with the elephant and the donkey as the symbols for the Republican and Democratic parties, as well as the modern image of Santa Claus, which first appeared in Harper’s Weekly on January 3, 1863.