Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast was one of America’s most noted political cartoonists. Best known for his campaign against New York City’s “Boss” Tweed, Nast was also responsible for the creation of the elephant and donkey symbols for the Republican and Democrat parties, and the “modern” image of Santa Clause.

This self-portrait of Thomas Nast hangs in the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC.

“Born in Germany, Thomas Nast (1840-1902) immigrated to New York in 1846. Nast’s gifts for illustration and social observation found ready use in national mass-circulation news magazines that did not yet have means to publish photographs. He published more than three thousand drawings, primarily in Harper’s Weekly between 1862 and 1885.

Nast favored Union-affirming policies and enjoyed the relative autonomy to express his political views. His early cartoons skewered the corrupt regime of New York City’s William Marcy ‘Boss’ Tweed. Nast went on to popularize the elephant and donkey as symbols of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively.

Nast may have painted this self-portrait around 1884, when he lost his fortune in a Wall Street Ponzi scheme. It is perhaps a self-caricature. He renders himself with a furrowed brow, collapsed into a chair. An open drape reveals New York’s Trinity Church, and the foot of Wall Street.

Out of favor with his editor, Nast left Harper’s Weekly in 1887. He later joined the Democratic National Committee as a contract cartoonist but never recovered a national audience or financial position.” – Smithsonian Institution.

Nast did much of his most famous work for Harper’s Weekly. He has been called “The Prince of Caricaturists” and “The Father of American Caricature." He lived in this house until his death on December 7, 1902.