Thomas Nast

Nast was born in military barracks in Landau, Bavaria, Germany (now in Rhineland-Palatinate), as his father was a trombonist in the Bavarian 9th regiment band.{{cite web| url = https://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/thomasnast/timeline.htm| title = Timeline of Thomas Nast's Life}} Nast was the last child of Appolonia (née Abriss) and Joseph Thomas Nast. He had an older sister Andie; two other siblings had died before he was born. His father held political convictions that put him at odds with the Bavarian government, so in 1846, Joseph Nast left Landau, enlisting first on a French man-of-war and subsequently on an American ship.Paine 1974, p. 7. He sent his wife and children to New York City, where they arrived in June 1846,{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=John |title=About Nast |url=https://thomasnast.com/about-nast/ |access-date=2022-10-02 |website=ThomasNast.com |language=en-US}} and at the end of his enlistment in 1850, he joined them there.Paine 1974, pp. 12–13.

Nast attended school in New York City from the age of six to 14. He did poorly at his lessons, but his passion for drawing was apparent from an early age. In 1854, at the age of 14, he was enrolled for about a year of study with Alfred Fredericks and Theodore Kaufmann, and then at the school of the National Academy of Design.Bryant, Edward. "Nast, Thomas". In Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Retrieved October 7, 2012.Halloran 2012, p. 3. In 1856, he started working as a draftsman for Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.Paine 1974, pp. v, 20. His drawings appeared for the first time in Harper's Weekly on March 19, 1859,Paine 1974, p. 29. when he illustrated a report exposing police corruption; Nast was 18 years old at that point.Halloran 2012, p. 26.

File:Thomas Nast self-portrait cph.3a00742.jpg

File:thomasnastselfportrait.jpg

In February 1860, he went to England for the New York Illustrated News to depict one of the major sporting events of the era, the prize fight between the American John C. Heenan and the English Thomas SayersPaine 1974, p. 36. sponsored by George Wilkes, publisher of Wilkes' Spirit of the Times. A few months later, as artist for The Illustrated London News, he joined Garibaldi in Italy. Nast's cartoons and articles about the Garibaldi military campaign to unify Italy captured the popular imagination in the U.S. In February 1861, he arrived back in New York. In September of that year, he married Sarah Edwards, whom he had met two years earlier.

He left the New York Illustrated News to work again, briefly, for Frank Leslie's Illustrated News.Halloran 2012, pp. 62–63. In 1862, he became a staff illustrator for Harper's Weekly. In his first years with Harper's, Nast became known especially for compositions that appealed to the sentiment of the viewer. An example is "Christmas Eve" (1862), in which a wreath frames a scene of a soldier's praying wife and sleeping children at home; a second wreath frames the soldier seated by a campfire, gazing longingly at small pictures of his loved ones.Paine 1974, p. 84. One of his most celebrated cartoons was Compromise with the South (1864), directed against those in the North who opposed the prosecution of the American Civil War.Paine 1974, p. 98. He was known for drawing battlefields in border and southern states. These attracted great attention, and Nast was referred to by President Abraham Lincoln as "our best recruiting sergeant".Paine 1974, p. 69.

After the war, Nast strongly opposed the anti-Reconstruction policy of President Andrew Johnson, whom he depicted in a series of trenchant cartoons that marked "Nast's great beginning in the field of caricature".Paine 1974, p. 112.

File:Schurz Defeat of Liberal Republicans.jpg, Belmont, Fenton, Trumbull, Tipton, and others lie before a vengeful Columbia (representing the U.S.) while Uncle Sam (also representing the U.S.) waves his hat beside the victorious Ulysses S. Grant, 1872.]]

Nast's cartoons frequently had numerous sidebars and panels with intricate subplots to the main cartoon. A Sunday feature could provide hours of entertainment and highlight social causes. After 1870, Nast favored simpler compositions featuring a strong central image. He based his likenesses on photographs.

In the early part of his career, Nast used a brush and ink wash technique to draw tonal renderings onto the wood blocks that would be carved into printing blocks by staff engravers.Halloran 2012, p. 102; Paine 1974, p. 135. The bold cross-hatching that characterized Nast's mature style resulted from a change in his method that began with a cartoon of June 26, 1869, which Nast drew onto the wood block using a pencil, so that the engraver was guided by Nast's linework. This change of style was influenced by the work of the English illustrator John Tenniel.Paine 1974, pp. 135–136. A recurring theme in Nast's cartoons is anti-Catholicism.Worth, Richard (1998). Thomas Nast: Honesty in the Pursuit of Corruption. Las Cruces, NM: Sofwest Press. p. 40.Halloran 2012, p. 197. Nast was baptized a Catholic at the Saint Maria Catholic Church in Landau,"Family Search.org" [https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NRMT-5BP Link text] and for a time received Catholic education in New York City.Paine 1974, p. 14.

When Nast converted to Protestantism remains unclear, but his conversion was likely formalized upon his marriage in 1861. (The family were practicing Episcopalians at St. Peter's in Morristown.) Nast considered the Catholic Church to be a threat to American values. According to his biographer, Fiona Deans Halloran, Nast was "intensely opposed to the encroachment of Catholic ideas into public education".Halloran 2012, p. 33. When Tammany Hall proposed a new tax to support parochial Catholic schools, he was outraged.

File:The American River Ganges (Thomas Nast cartoon).jpg. Harper's Weekly, September 30, 1871]]

His 1871 cartoon The American River Ganges, depicts Catholic bishops, guided by Rome, as crocodiles moving in to attack American school children as Irish politicians prevent their escape. He portrayed public support for religious education as a threat to democratic government. The authoritarian papacy in Rome, ignorant Irish Americans, and corrupt politicians at Tammany Hall figured prominently in his work. Nast favored nonsectarian public education that mitigated differences of religion and ethnicity. However, in 1871 Nast and Harper's Weekly supported the Republican-dominated board of education in Long Island in requiring students to hear passages from the King James Bible, and his educational cartoons sought to raise anti-Catholic and anti-Irish fervor among Republicans and independents.Benjamin Justice, "Thomas Nast and the Public School of the 1870s". History of Education Quarterly 45#2 (2005): 171–206 [www.jstor.org/stable/20461949 in JSTOR].

Nast expressed anti-Irish sentiment by depicting them as violent drunks. He used Irish people as a symbol of mob violence, machine politics, and the exploitation of immigrants by political bosses.Halloran 2012, pp. 32–35. Nast's emphasis on Irish violence may have originated in scenes he witnessed in his youth. Nast was physically small and had experienced bullying as a child.Halloran 2012, p. 35. In the neighborhood in which he grew up, acts of violence by the Irish against black Americans were commonplace.Halloran 2012, p. 34.

In 1863, he witnessed the New York City draft riots in which a mob composed mainly of Irish immigrants burned the Colored Orphan Asylum to the ground. His experiences may explain his sympathy for black Americans and his "antipathy to what he perceived as the brutish, uncontrollable Irish thug". An 1876 Nast cartoon combined a caricature of Charles Francis Adams Sr with anti-Irish sentiment and anti-Fenianship.American Heritage August 1958 Volume IX Number 5 p. 90. The Nast cartoon of Charles Adams' 1876 campaign for governor is seen [https://www.masshist.org/database/5892 here].

In general, his political cartoons supported American Indians and Chinese Americans.Paine 1974, pp. 148, 412. He advocated the abolition of slavery, opposed racial segregation, and deplored the violence of the Ku Klux Klan. In one of his more famous cartoons, the phrase "Worse than Slavery" is printed on a coat of arms depicting a despondent black family holding their dead child; in the background is a lynching and a schoolhouse destroyed by arson. Two members of the Ku Klux Klan and White League, paramilitary insurgent groups in the Reconstruction-era South, shake hands in their mutually destructive work against black Americans.{{cite news |last=Nast |first=Thomas |date=September 24, 1874 |title=Worse Than Slavery |volume=18 |page=878 |work=Harper's Weekly |issue=930 |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c28619/ |access-date=June 26, 2022}}

File:"This is a White Man's Government!" (September 1868), by Thomas Nast.jpg|September 1868 Nast cartoon "This is a White Man's Government!"{{Efn|Depicted left to right: a stereotyped Irishman (representing a Northern Democratic party member), an ex-Confederate soldier (Nathan B. Forrest, representing a Southern Democratic party member), and Democratic party chairman August Belmont "triumphing" over a prostrate USCT soldier}}

File:TheUsualIrishWayofDoingThings.jpg|The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things, a Nast cartoon depicting a drunken Irishman lighting a powder keg. Published in Harper's Weekly, September 2, 1871

File:"Move on!" Has the Native American no rights that the naturalized American is bound to respect? - - Th. Nast. LCCN2001696066.tif|1871 Nast cartoon: "Move on! Has the Native American no rights that the naturalized American is bound to respect?"{{Efn|While naturalized foreigners had the vote, Native Americans had no vote, as they were not considered United States citizens, which was not remedied until 1924.}}

File:"Every Dog" (No Distinction of Color) "Has His Day", by Thomas Nast.jpg|alt=Political cartoon by Thomas Nast depicting a Chinese immigrant, American Indian, and African American, published in the periodical Harper's Weekly on February 8, 1879. The Chinese man and American Indian man stand together looking at a wall plastered with xenophobic headlines. To the left, an African American reclines in the background. The image is captioned as follows: "EVERY DOG" (NO DISTINCTION OF COLOR) "HAS HIS DAY" [line break] Red Gentleman to Yellow Gentleman. "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me."|1879 Nast cartoon: " 'Every dog' (no distinction of color) 'has his day' "{{Efn|Shows an American Indian and a Chinese immigrant looking at a wall plastered with xenophobic headlines, the former saying to the latter, "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me." In the left background an African American remarks, "My day is coming".}}

File:NastRepublicanElephant.jpg|Nast's cartoon "Third Term Panic".{{Efn|Inspired by the tale of The Ass in the Lion's Skin and a rumor of President Grant seeking a third term, the Democratic donkey (labeled "Caesarism") panics the other political animals, including a Republican Party elephant.}}

File:Colored rule.jpg|"Colored Rule in a Reconstructed(?) State (The members call each other thieves, liars, rascals, and cowards)", Harper's Weekly, March 14, 1874.{{Efn|Cartoon showing members of the South Carolina Legislature in argument in the House, with Columbia rebuking them, saying "You are aping the lowest whites. If you disgrace your race in this way you had better take back seats."{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3c02256/|title=Colored rule in a reconstructed(?) state (The members call each other thieves, liars, rascals, and cowards) / Th. Nast.|website=Library of Congress |date=January 1874 }} By this point, it is estimated that Nast had given up on idealism on racial issues, and perceived black legislators as incompetent buffoons.}}

Despite Nast's championing of minorities, Morton Keller writes that later in his career "racist stereotypy of blacks began to appear: comparable to those of the Irish—though in contrast with the presumably more highly civilized Chinese."Keller, Morton, [https://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/thomasnast/keller.pdf "The World of Thomas Nast"]. Retrieved February 24, 2018.

During Nast's era, William Shakespeare's plays were an inherent part of the school curriculum. He introduced into American cartoons the practice of modernizing scenes from Shakespeare for a political purpose, referencing 23 of his 37 plays in more than 100 cartoons—sometimes with just a recognizable line or two, but generally with pictorial content.{{Cite web |last=Adler |first=John |title=Cartoons {{!}} Shakespeare {{!}} Political Cartoonist {{!}} Thomas Nast |url=https://thomasnast.com/cartoon-categories/shakespeare/}}

File:Shakespeare's Voyage of Life.jpg|Nast referenced 23 of Shakespeare's 37 plays in more than 100 cartoons—sometimes with just a recognizable line or two, but generally with pictorial content.{{Efn|This quarter page illustration was published in Harper's Weekly, October 7, 1871 (Pg 948)}}

File:The “Liberal” Conspirators (Who, You All Know, Are Honorable Men).jpg|Nast quoted from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, comparing Ulysses S. Grant to Caesar.{{Efn|Horace Greeley, clad in a toga, was cast as Cicero, the Roman senator and enemy of Caesar, whom the other conspirators left out of the plot in Shakespeare's play. Ringleader Carl Schurz, playing Brutus, disdained Greeley's potential candidacy. Published in Harper's Weekly, March 16, 1872 (Pg 208)}}

File:A Few Washington Sketches — In the Senate.jpg|Nast ridiculed Senator Lyman Trumbull (IL), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, via Shakespeare's Macbeth. Published in Harper's Weekly, March 23, 1872 (p. 232)

File:United States Senate Theatre.jpg|Nast detested Carl Schurz and attacked him about 60 times during Ulysses S. Grant's presidency.{{Efn|Here he cast Schurz as Iago, the evil villain from Shakespeare's Othello. Published on the cover of Harper's Weekly, March 30, 1872 (Pg 241)}}

File:Not So Easily Played Upon.jpg|Carl Schurz's long legs were his primary exaggerated feature for the caricaturist, Nast.{{Efn|Another attribute that Nast frequently "played to" was his musical talent, usually on the piano. Both used here, via Shakespeare's Hamlet. Published on the cover of Harper's Weekly, April 27, 1872 (Pg 321)}}

File:A Step in the Right Direction.jpg|Nast dramatized Ulysses S. Grant as a victorious knight stamping out corruption and fraud.{{Efn|Nast used a quotation from the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet to praise him, substituting "President" for "Prince" at the end. Published in Harper's Weekly, June 6, 1874 (Pg 473)}}

File:“Where There Is an Evil” (Caesarism Scare) “There Is a Remedy” — (Ridicule).jpg|Nast's target in this cartoon was James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the wealthy, conceited, autocratic editor of the Herald.{{Efn|Nast went after Bennett with a vengeance, using Shakespeare to fight Shakespeare, portraying him 30 times before the end of Ulysses S. Grant's presidency, usually as an ass (Bottom, the weaver) from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Here, Nast tormented Bennett with his own "Sweet Music" played on a harp (Harper's Weekly), with his sheet music containing an ass-headed Caesarism scarecrow. Published in Harper's Weekly, November 8, 1873 (Pg 992)}}

Nast also brought his approach to bear on the usually prosaic almanac business, publishing an annual Nast's Illustrated Almanac from 1871 to 1875. {{cite journal | last1 = Davies | first1 = Ross E. | title = Thomas Nast's Illustrated Almanacs, 1871-1875 | journal = Greenbag Almanac Reader| volume = 11 | issue = 4 | pages = 212–220 | publisher = Antonin Scalia Law School, Law & Economics Research Paper Series | location = Arlington | date = January 10, 2011 | url = https://ssrn.com/abstract=1744130}} The Green Bag republished all five of Nast's almanacs in the 2011 edition of its Almanac & Reader.Nast's Illustrated Almanac (1871–1875) (reprinted in the 2011 Green Bag Almanac & Reader, pages 106-746).

{{multiple image

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Boss Tweed depicted by Thomas Nast in a wood engraving published in Harper's Weekly, October 21, 1871

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| caption2 = A Group of Vultures Waiting for the Storm to "Blow Over"{{spaced ndash}}"Let Us Prey."
The Tweed Ring depicted by Nast in a wood engraving published in Harper's Weekly, September 23, 1871

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| caption3 = The Tammany Tiger Loose—"What are you going to do about it?", published in Harper's Weekly in November 1871, just before election day. "Boss" Tweed is depicted in the audience as the Emperor.

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Nast's drawings were instrumental in the downfall of Boss Tweed, the powerful Tammany Hall leader.Paine 1974, p. 204. As commissioner of public works for New York City, Tweed led a ring that by 1870 had gained total control of the city's government, and controlled "a working majority in the State Legislature".Paine 1974, p. 140. Tweed and his associates—Peter Barr Sweeny (park commissioner), Richard B. Connolly (controller of public expenditures), and Mayor A. Oakey Hall—defrauded the city of many millions of dollars by grossly inflating expenses paid to contractors connected to the Ring.Paine 1974, pp. 174–177. Nast, whose cartoons attacking Tammany corruption had appeared occasionally since 1867, intensified his focus on the four principal players in 1870 and especially in 1871.Paine 1974, pp. 145, 147, 158, 178.

Tweed so feared Nast's campaign that he sent an emissary to offer the artist a bribe of $100,000, which was represented as a gift from a group of wealthy benefactors to enable Nast to study art in Europe.Paine 1974, p. 181. Feigning interest, Nast negotiated for more before finally refusing an offer of $500,000 with the words, "Well, I don't think I'll do it. I made up my mind not long ago to put some of those fellows behind the bars".Paine 1974, pp. 181–182. Nast pressed his attack in the pages of Harper's, and the Ring was removed from power in the election of November 7, 1871.Shirley, David (1998). Thomas Nast: Cartoonist and Illustrator. New York: Franklin Watts. p. 51. Tweed was arrested in 1873 and convicted of fraud. When Tweed attempted to escape justice in December 1875 by fleeing to Cuba and from there to Spain, officials in Vigo were able to identify the fugitive by using one of Nast's cartoons.Paine 1974, pp. 336–337.

Nast was the first journalist who did not own his newspaper to play a major role in shaping public opinion. His cartoons were influential in deciding five presidential elections: Abraham Lincoln (1864); Ulysses S. Grant (1868 and 1872); Rutherford B. Hayes (1876)—all Republicans—and Democrat Grover Cleveland (1884). His biting cartoons ridiculed the losers: George B. McClellan (1864); Horatio Seymour (1868); Horace Greeley (1872); Samuel J. Tilden (1876); and James G. Blaine (1884). Nast effectively sat out the 1880 election because he distrusted Republican James A. Garfield (who won) and admired Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, a Civil War hero and Nast's personal friend.

In addition to his talent, creativity and the repetitive impact of his cartoons, Nast benefited from his lack of meaningful competition before Puck arrived in 1877, and from the financial strength, editorial consistency and reach of Harper's Weekly. America's leading illustrated newspaper's circulation was about 120,000 during the Civil War, 200,000 during subsequent presidential elections, and almost 300,000 during the height of the Tweed campaign. With passalong readership, Nast's audience reached 500,000 to more than a million viewers.{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=John |title=America's Most Influential Journalist: The Life, Times and Legacy of Thomas Nast |publisher=Harpweek Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0578294544 |pages=iii}}

The single most important and influential cartoon that Nast ever drew appeared in Harper's Weekly on August 24, 1864 (post-dated September 3) as the Democratic National Committee was assembling in Chicago to nominate McClellan (whom Lincoln had fired as his top Union general two years earlier) for president. Compromise with the South—Dedicated to the Chicago Convention captured the very crux of the existential emotional and political stake at issue in the forthcoming election.

Nast's scathing caricature featured an arrogant, exultant Jefferson Davis shaking hands with a crippled Union soldier who—with his head bowed and his only leg shackled to a ball and chain—humbly accepted it. Columbia, representing the Union and modeled by Nast's wife Sallie, wept at the gravestone marked "In Memory of Our Union Heroes Who Fell in a Useless War." As Davis's boot stomped on a Union grave and broke the sword of Northern Power, the cat-o'-nine-tails in his left hand was ready to flog his vanquished enemies. A Black family in chains despaired behind Davis. The Union flag, upside down in distress, recited its successes, including emancipation, on its stripes; the Confederate flag detailed a list of atrocities.

On October 16—almost eight weeks after Nast's cartoon appeared—the Richmond Enquirer published some more extreme demands which were not in the Democratic platform. Lincoln's reelection managers took Nast's cartoon, added "The Rebel Terms of Peace," and made more than a million copies as campaign posters. In combination with General William T. Sherman's capture of Atlanta on September 1 and General Phil Sheridan's victory in the Shenandoah Valley on October 19, "A Traitor's Peace" probably was the single most effective visual campaign advertisement in any American presidential election before or since.{{Cite book |last=Adler |first=John |title=America's Most Influential Journalist: The Life, Times and Legacy of Thomas Nast |publisher=Harpweek Press |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-578-29454-4 |pages=xi}}

Nast played an important role during the presidential election in 1868, and Ulysses S. Grant attributed his victory to "the sword of Sheridan and the pencil of Thomas Nast."Vinson, John C. [http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/thomas_nast Thomas Nast, Political Cartoonist.] Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1967. In the 1872 presidential campaign, Nast's ridicule of Horace Greeley's candidacy was especially merciless.Gerry, Margarita S. (2004) Through Five Administrations: Reminiscences of Colonel William H. Crook Body Guard to President Lincoln. Kessinger Publishing. p. 192. {{ISBN|1417960795}}. After Grant's victory in 1872, Mark Twain wrote the artist a letter saying: "Nast, you more than any other man have won a prodigious victory for Grant—I mean, rather, for Civilization and Progress."Paine 1974, p. 263. Nast became a close friend of President Grant and the two families shared regular dinners until Grant's death in 1885.

Nast and his wife moved to Morristown, New Jersey in 1872Halloran 2012, p. 190. and there they raised a family that eventually numbered five children.{{Cite web |title=Thomas Nast {{!}} Encyclopedia.com |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/american-art-biographies/thomas-nast#:~:text=Personal,Attended%20National%20Academy%20of%20Design. |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}} In 1873, Nast toured the United States as a lecturer and a sketch-artist.Paine 1974, pp. 283–285. His activity on the lecture circuit made him wealthy.Halloran 2012, p. 188. Nast was for many years a staunch Republican.United States, Diane K. Skvarla, and Donald A. Ritchie (2006). United States Senate Catalogue of Graphic Art. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 329. {{ISBN|0160728533}}. Nast opposed inflation of the currency, notably with his famous rag-baby cartoons, and he played an important part in securing Rutherford B. Hayes' ultimate victory in the presidential election in 1876.Paine 1974, pp. 334–335, 349. Hayes later remarked that Nast was "the most powerful, single-handed aid [he] had",Paine 1974, p. 349. but Nast quickly became disillusioned with President Hayes, whose lenient policy towards the South in removing federal troops he opposed.Paine 1974, p. 352.

The death of the Weekly{{'}}s publisher, Fletcher Harper, in 1877 resulted in a changed relationship between Nast and his editor George William Curtis. His cartoons appeared less frequently, and he was not given free rein to criticize Hayes or his policies.Halloran 2012, pp. 228–229. Beginning in the late 1860s, Nast and Curtis had frequently differed on political matters and particularly on the role of cartoons in political discourse.Halloran 2012, p. 228. Curtis believed that the powerful weapon of caricature should be reserved for "the Ku-Klux Democracy" of the opposition party, and did not approve of Nast's cartoons assailing Republicans such as Carl Schurz and Charles Sumner who opposed policies of the Grant administration.Paine 1974, pp. 216–218. Nast said of Curtis: "When he attacks a man with his pen it seems as if he were apologizing for the act. I try to hit the enemy between the eyes and knock him down." Fletcher Harper consistently supported Nast in his disputes with Curtis. After his death, his nephews, Joseph W. Harper Jr. and John Henry Harper, assumed control of the magazine and were more sympathetic to Curtis's arguments for rejecting cartoons that contradicted his editorial positions.Halloran 2012, pp. 228–230.

Between 1877 and 1884, Nast's work appeared only sporadically in Harper's, which began publishing the milder political cartoons of William Allen Rogers. Although his sphere of influence was diminishing, from this period date dozens of his pro-Chinese immigration drawings, often implicating the Irish as instigators. Nast blamed U.S. Senator James G. Blaine (R-Maine) for his support of the Chinese Exclusion Act and depicted Blaine with the same zeal used against Tweed. Nast was one of the few editorial artists who took up for the cause of the Chinese in America.Paine 1974, pp. 412–413

During the presidential election of 1880, Nast felt that he could not support the Republican candidate, James A. Garfield, because of Garfield's involvement in the Crédit Mobilier scandal; and did not wish to attack the Democratic candidate, Winfield Scott Hancock, his personal friend and a Union general whose integrity commanded respect. As a result, "Nast's commentary on the 1880 campaign lacked passion", according to Halloran.Halloran 2012, p. 248. He submitted no cartoons to Harper's between the end of March 1883 and March 1, 1884, partly because of illness.Halloran 2012, pp. 250–252.

In 1884, Curtis and Nast agreed that they could not support the Republican candidate James G. Blaine, a proponent of high tariffs and the spoils system whom they perceived as personally corrupt.Halloran 2012, p. 255; Paine 1974, p. 480. Instead, they became Mugwumps by supporting the Democratic candidate, Grover Cleveland, whose platform of civil service reform appealed to them. Nast's cartoons helped Cleveland become the first Democrat to be elected president since 1856. In the words of the artist's grandson, Thomas Nast St Hill, "it was generally conceded that Nast's support won Cleveland the small margin by which he was elected. In this his last national political campaign, Nast had, in fact, 'made a president'."Nast & St. Hill 1974, p. 33.

Nast's tenure at Harper's Weekly ended with his Christmas illustration of December 1886. It was said by the journalist Henry Watterson that "in quitting Harper's Weekly, Nast lost his forum: in losing him, Harper's Weekly lost its political importance."Paine 1974, p. 528 Fiona Deans Halloran says "the former is true to a certain extent, the latter unlikely."Halloran 2012, p. 270.

Nast lost most of his fortune in 1884 after investing in a banking and brokerage firm operated by the swindler Ferdinand Ward. In need of income, Nast returned to the lecture circuit in 1884 and 1887.Paine 1974, pp. 510, 530. Although these tours were successful, they were less remunerative than the lecture series of 1873.Halloran 2012, pp. 266, 271.

{{Gallery

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| File:Compromise with the South - Dedicated to the Chicago Convention - Th. Nast. LCCN2002723256.jpg|Compromise with the South—Dedicated to the Chicago Convention (1864) by Thomas Nast

| File:Traitor's Peace.jpg|1864 Lincoln Campaign Poster The Rebel Terms of Peace

| File:Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner (November 1869), by Thomas Nast.jpg|An 1869 Nast cartoon supporting the Fifteenth Amendment{{Cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/1122.html |title=Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner, Artist: Thomas Nast |work=On This Day: HarpWeek |publisher=The New York Times Company |date=November 2001 |first=Robert C. |last=Kennedy |access-date=November 23, 2001 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011123201735/http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/harp/1122.html |archive-date=November 23, 2001 }}{{Cite web|url=http://thomasnastcartoons.com/selected-cartoons/uncle-sams-thanksgiving-dinner-two-coasts-two-perspectives/ |title=Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner: Two Coasts, Two Perspectives |first=Michele |last=Walfred |work=Thomas Nast Cartoons |date=July 2014 |access-date=March 5, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305182430/http://thomasnastcartoons.com/selected-cartoons/uncle-sams-thanksgiving-dinner-two-coasts-two-perspectives/ |archive-date=March 5, 2016 }} optimistically envisions a multicultural comity that interprets the national motto E pluribus unum as a heartening holiday family gathering; "In the words of J. Henry Harper, 'Nast was one of the great statesmen of his time. I have never known a man with a surer political insight. He seemed to see approaching events before most men dreamed of them as possible.'"{{Cite book |last=Faust |first=Albert Bernhardt |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000336567 |title=The German element in the United States: with special reference to its political, moral, social, and educational influence |date=1909 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |isbn=978-0-7905-6587-3 |location=Boston |page=363 |language=en-us}}

|File:Schurz Corruption.jpg|Interior Secretary Schurz cleaning house, Harper's Weekly, January 26, 1878

|File:Senatorial Round House by Thomas Nast 1886.jpg|Senatorial Round House, from Harper's Weekly, July 10, 1886

|File:Thomas Nast from Harpers Weekly.png|Portrait of Thomas Nast from Harper's Weekly, 1867

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File:Thomas Nast (1840-1902) (3467747948).jpg

In 1890, Nast published Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race. He contributed cartoons in various publications, notably the Illustrated American, but was unable to regain his earlier popularity. His mode of cartooning had come to be seen as outdated, and a more relaxed style exemplified by the work of Joseph Keppler was in vogue.Halloran 2012, p. 272. Health problems, which included pain in his hands which had troubled him since the 1870s, affected his ability to work.

In 1892, he took control of a failing magazine, the New York Gazette, and renamed it Nast's Weekly. Now returned to the Republican fold, Nast used the Weekly as a vehicle for his cartoons supporting Benjamin Harrison for president. The magazine had little impact and ceased publication seven months after it began, shortly after Harrison's defeat.Paine 1974, p. 540, Halloran 2012, p. 275.

The failure of Nast's Weekly left Nast with few financial resources. He received a few commissions for oil paintings and drew book illustrations. In 1902, he applied for a job in the State Department, hoping to secure a consular position in western Europe. Although no such position was available, President Theodore Roosevelt was an admirer of the artist and offered him an appointment as the United States' Consul General to Guayaquil, Ecuador in South America.Halloran 2012, p. 278. Nast accepted the position and traveled to Ecuador on July 1, 1902. During a subsequent yellow fever outbreak, Nast remained on the job, helping numerous diplomatic missions and businesses escape the contagion. He contracted the disease and died on December 7 of that year. His body was returned to the United States, where he was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Nast's depictions of iconic characters, such as Santa Claus{{cite book| last= Forbes| first= Bruce D. |year= 2008| title= Christmas: A Candid History| publisher= University of California Press| page= 89| isbn= 978-0520258020}} and Uncle Sam, are widely credited as forming the basis of popular depictions used today. Additional contributions by Nast include:

• Republican Party elephant{{cite journal| url= http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2008/4/2008_4_14.shtml |first= Jennifer J. |last= Rodibaugh |title= Cartoonery: When Donkey and Elephant First Clashed| journal= American Heritage |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100918122041/http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/2008/4/2008_4_14.shtml |archive-date= September 18, 2010| volume= 58| number= 4| date= Spring–Summer 2008| access-date= June 15, 2018}}
• Democratic Party donkey (although the donkey was associated with the Democrats as early as 1837, Nast popularized the representation{{cite book| first= Donal A. |last= Voorhees| title= The Book of Totally Useless Information| year= 1998| pages= 14–15}})
• Tammany Hall tiger, a symbol of Boss Tweed's political machine
• Uncle Sam, a lanky avuncular personification of the United States (first drawn in the 1830s; Nast and John Tenniel added the goatee)
• John Confucius, a variation of John Chinaman, a traditional caricature of a Chinese immigrant
• The Fight at Dame Europa's School, 1871
• Peace in Union, a {{cvt|9|ft}} by {{cvt|12|ft}} oil painting which depicts the surrender of General Robert E. Lee to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865. The painting was a commission from Herman Kohlsaat in 1894. Upon its completion in 1895 it was presented as a gift to the citizens of Galena, Illinois.

In December 2011, a proposal to include Nast in the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2012 caused controversy. The Wall Street Journal reported that because of his stereotypical cartoons of the Irish, a number of objections were raised about Nast's work. For example, "The Usual Irish Way of Doing Things" portrays an Irishman as being sub-human, drunk, and violent.{{cite news| url= https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052970203430404577096851689671274 | title= Cartoonist Draws Ire of N.J. Irish| work= The Wall Street Journal| first= Heather |last= Haddon| date= December 14, 2011| access-date= June 15, 2018}}

File:Santa Claus 1863 Harpers.png|Nast's Santa Claus on the cover of the January 3, 1863, issue of Harper's Weekly

File:Nast asks Pardon.jpg|Thomas Nast (presumably sarcastically) drew himself asking for forgiveness from Senators for his critical sketches, writing "nobody may say a word against them for they are sacred".

The Thomas Nast Award{{cite web | url= http://editorialcartoonists.com/news/awards.cfm | title= Editorial Cartooning Award Winners | publisher= The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists | work= editorialcartoonists.com | access-date= September 7, 2015 | archive-date= September 27, 2007 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070927004314/http://editorialcartoonists.com/news/awards.cfm | url-status= dead }} has been presented each year since 1968 by the Overseas Press Club{{cite web| url= http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/nate_beeler_wins_thomas_nast_award_bill_day_wins_rfk_journalism_award/ |title= Nate Beeler Wins Thomas Nast Award; Bill Day Wins RFK Journalism Award | work= The Comics Reporter | publisher= Tom Spurgeon |quote= The Thomas Nast Award has been part of the OPC Awards since 1968; past winners include Don Wright and Jim Morin.| access-date= June 15, 2018}} Overseas Press Club of American website. Accessed Sept. 7, 2015. to an editorial cartoonist for the "best cartoons on international affairs." Past winners include Signe Wilkinson, Kevin (KAL) Kallaugher, Mike Peters, Clay Bennett, Mike Luckovich, Tom Toles, Herbert Block, Tony Auth, Jeff MacNelly, Dick Locher, Jim Morin, Warren King, Tom Darcy, Don Wright and Patrick Chappatte.

In December 2018, The OPC Board of Governors decided to remove Nast's name from the award noting that Nast "exhibited an ugly bias against immigrants, the Irish and Catholics". OPC President Pancho Bernasconi stated "Once we became aware of how some groups and ethnicities were portrayed in a manner that is not consistent with how journalists work and view their role today, we voted to remove his name from the award."{{Cite web|url=https://opcofamerica.org/opc-renames-commentary-and-cartoon-awards-honors-flora-lewis/|title=OPC Renames Commentary and Cartoon Awards; Honors Flora Lewis|date=2018-12-17|website=OPC|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-01}}

The Thomas Nast Prize for editorial cartooning has been awarded by the Thomas Nast Foundation (located in Nast's birthplace of Landau, Germany) since 1978 when it was first given to Jeff MacNelly.{{cite press release | url= http://editorialcartoonists.com/news/article.cfm/115/ | title= The 2002 Thomas Nast Prize for editorial cartooning | publisher= The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists | date= February 18, 2002 | work= editorialcartoonists.com | access-date= June 15, 2018 | archive-date= January 22, 2013 | archive-url= https://archive.today/20130122024125/http://editorialcartoonists.com/news/article.cfm/115/ | url-status= dead }} The prize is awarded periodically to one German cartoonist and one North American cartoonist. Winners receive 1,300 Euros, a trip to Landau, and the Thomas Nast medal. The American advisory committee includes Nast's descendant Thomas Nast III of Fort Worth, Texas. Other winners of the Thomas Nast Prize include Jim Borgman, Paul Szep, Pat Oliphant, David Levine, Jim Morin, and Tony Auth.{{cite web| url= http://www.joeszabo.us/wittyworld/winners/nast.html | via= joeszabo.us| title= Thomas Nast Prize| work= Witty World: International Cartoon Center | date= September 7, 2015}}

The word "nasty" is erroneously thought to derive from Nast's name, due to the cynical tone of many of his cartoons.{{cite web| website= german.about.com| url= https://www.thoughtco.com/german-misnomers-myths-4071082 | title= German Misnomers, Myths, and Mistakes: What's True and What's Not? | first= Hyde |last= Flippo | date= March 6, 2017 | access-date= June 15, 2018}} In reality, the word's origins are unclear, but it is ancient, with written evidence that dates to the 1400s. Chief etymological theories prominently include derivation from Old Norse, Old French and/or some relation to a Dutch term.{{cite web |url= http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nasty|title=nasty etymology |access-date=2009-02-01|last=Harper |first= Douglas |work= etymonline.com |publisher=Online Etymology Dictionary |date=November 2001}}

{{Reflist|group=lower-alpha|30em}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Adler, John, and Draper Hill. Doomed by Cartoon: How Cartoonist Thomas Nast and the New York Times Brought Down Boss Tweed and His Ring of Thieves (Morgan James Publishing, 2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=z6YjB5FnKgwC&dq=thomas+nast&pg=PP2 online].
• Adler, John. America's Most Influential Journalist and Premier Political Cartoonist: The Life, Times and Legacy of Thomas Nast (Harp Week Press, 2022).
• Barrett, Ross. "On Forgetting: Thomas Nast, the Middle Class, and the Visual Culture of the Draft Riots." Prospects. 29 (2005): 25-55. [http://www.joshbrownnyc.com/images/BarrettProspects.pdf online]
• Boime, Albert. "Thomas Nast and French Art," American Art Journal. 4#1 (1972), pp. 43–65 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1593920 in JSTOR]
• {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Nast, Thomas|volume=19|page=251}}
• Dewey, Donald. The Art of Ill Will: The Story of American Political Cartoons. (NYU Press, 2007). {{ISBN|0814719856}} [https://archive.org/details/artofillwillstor0000dewe online]
• Dorsch, Timothy, "Deeper Impressions of Thomas Nast and Joseph Keppler: Analyzing the Role of Political Cartoons in the Development and Perceptions of Late Nineteenth Century Group Images" (Thesis, U Central Florida, 2020). [https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd2020/347 online]
• Halloran, Fiona Deans (2012). Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press. {{ISBN|9780807835876}}. Scholarly biography [https://archive.org/details/thomasnastfather0000hall online]
• {{cite book |last=Hoff |first=Syd |author-link=Syd Hoff |title=Boss Tweed and the man who drew him |publisher=Coward, McCann & Geoghegan |location=New York |year=1978 |oclc=1148013228 |ol=4718805M |isbn=9780698307063 |lccn=78005622 }}
• {{cite book|last=Keller|first=Morton |year=1968 |title=The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |lccn=68-19762}}
• Orr, Brooke Speer. "Crusading Cartoonist: Thomas Nast, Reviews in American History'' (2014) 42#2 pp 292–95; review of Halloran (2012)
• Huntzicker, William E. "Thomas Nast, Harper’s Weekly, and the Election of 1876." in After the War (Routledge, 2017). 53-68. [https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351295086-5/thomas-nast-harper-weekly-election-1876-william-huntzicker online]
• Jarman, Baird. "The Graphic Art of Thomas Nast: Politics and Propriety in Postbellum Publishing." American Periodicals 20.2 (2010): 156-189. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/23025187 online]
• Pascal, John. "Mark Twain and Thomas Nast: The Friendship and Correspondence of the Writer and the Cartoonist." Mark Twain Journal 59.1 (2021): 11-30. [https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA662078115&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=00253499&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E8ad2637e&aty=open+web+entry online]
• Pflueger, Lynda. Thomas Nast: political cartoonist (2000), for middle schools [https://archive.org/details/thomasnastpoliti0000pflu online]
• Vinson, John Chalmers. Thomas Nast: political cartoonist (University of Georgia Press, 2014).
• Wilde, Lukas RA, and Shane Denson. "Historicizing and Theorizing Pre-Narrative Figures—Who is Uncle Sam?." Narrative 30.2 (2022): 152-168. [https://muse.jhu.edu/article/855321/pdf online]
• Worth, Richard. Thomas Nast : honesty in the pursuit of corruption (1998) [https://archive.org/details/thomasnasthonest00wort online]. for secondary schools

• Nast, T., & St. Hill, T. N. (1974). Thomas Nast: Cartoons and Illustrations. (New York: Dover Publications) {{ISBN|0-486-23067-8}} [https://archive.org/details/thomasnastcartoo00thom/page/n1/mode/2up online]
• {{cite book |title=Th. Nast: His Period And His Pictures |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2BwxAAAAMAAJ |last=Paine Albert Bigelow |author-link=Albert Bigelow Paine |year=1904 |publisher=The MacMillan Company |location=New York |access-date=2009-07-10}} {{ISBN|0-87861-079-0}} [https://archive.org/details/thomasnasthispe00paingoog online]

{{Commons category|Thomas Nast}}

• {{official|http://www.thomasnast.com/}}
• [http://pudl.princeton.edu/collections/pudl0039 Thomas Nast collection at Princeton University Library]; 600 of Nast's original drawings and published wood engravings
• [https://osucartoons.pastperfectonline.com/ Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State U.]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121101093648/http://www.thomas-nast.webs.com/ National History Day Project about Thomas Nast]
• [http://elections.harpweek.com/ Elections 1860–1912] as covered by Harper's Weekly; news, editorials, cartoons (many by Nast)
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110825061453/http://cartoons.osu.edu/nast/ Nast cartoons from Ohio State University]
• [http://graphicwitness.org/group/harper.htm#nast1 More work by Thomas Nast]
• [http://thomasnastcartoons.com/ Nast cartoons focused on Chinese Exclusion. "Illustrating Chinese Exclusion"]
• [http://www.sonofthesouth.net/Thomas_Nast_Civil_War.htm Thomas Nast Civil War Pictures]
• [http://greatcaricatures.com/articles_galleries/nast/html/01_nast.html Thomas Nast Caricatures of the Civil War, Reconstruction, Santa Claus, Napoleon, Catholicism, Boss Tweed, Tammany Hall and more.]
• {{Cite Appletons'|wstitle=Nast, Thomas|year=1900 |short=x}}
• {{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Nast, Thomas}}
• [http://cdm16100.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15387coll2 The Thomas Nast Collection--Morristown & Morris Township Public Library, NJ]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110430031236/http://www.historybuff.com/library/refnast.html Thomas Nast on] History Buff.
• [http://www.wdl.org/en/item/9579 "Emancipation"], a work by Thomas Nast from 1865 via the World Digital Library
• [http://mcnyblog.org/2013/09/24/thomas-nast-takes-down-tammany-a-cartoonists-crusade-against-a-political-boss/ Thomas Nast takes down Tammany: A cartoonist's crusade against a political boss] from the [http://mcnyblog.org/ Museum of the City of New York Collections blog]
• [http://cartoons.osu.edu/digital_albums/thomasnast/ The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum: Thomas Nast]
• {{Gutenberg author | id=7238}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname=Thomas Nast}}
• [https://maccullochhall.org/collections/caricaturama/ THE GRAND CARICATURAMA], collection at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

{{Society of Illustrators' Hall of Fame}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nast, Thomas}}

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