Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast
was a celebrity. In 1873, following his successful
campaign against New York City’s Tweed Ring, he was billed as
“The Prince of Caricaturists” for a lecture tour that lasted seven
months. Nast used his Harper’s Weekly cartoons
to crusade against
New York City’s political boss William Magear Tweed,
and he
devised the Tammany tiger for this crusade. He popularized the
elephant to symbolize the Republican Party and
the donkey as the
symbol for the Democratic Party, and created the "modern" image
of
Santa Claus. Following his death on December
7, 1902, Thomas
Nast’s obituary in Harper’s Weekly stated, "He has
been called,
perhaps not with accuracy, but with substantial justice, the Father
of American Caricature."