Thomas Nast

Thomas Nast, the founding father of American political cartooning and a member of the Seventh Regiment, is perhaps best known for his works portraying political parties as the Democratic donkey and the Republican elephant. Nast’s legacy also includes a trove of other political cartoons, his successful attack on the machine politics of Tammany Hall in 1871, and his wildly popular illustrations of Santa Claus for Harper’s Weekly. Throughout his career, his drawings provided a pointed critique that forced readers to confront the contradictions around them. Fiona Deans Halloran will focus this talk not just on Nast’s political cartoons for Harper’s but also on his place within the complexities of Gilded Age politics and highlight the many contradictions in his own life.

Fiona Deans Halloran, the author of Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons, teaches American history at Rowland Hall St. Mark’s School in Salt Lake City. She holds a PhD in history from UCLA and has been the recipient of research support from the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford, the Huntington Library, and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.