Thomas Nast

American cartoonist, best known for his attack on the political machine of William M. Tweed in New York City in the 1870s.

Nast immigrated to New York at the age of six. After graduation for art school, he illustrated for Harper’s Weekly, the London News and American publications.

During the American Civil War, Nast vigorously supported the cause of the Union and opposed slavery from his drawing board at Harper’s Weekly. His cartoons were so effective that President Abraham Lincoln called him “our best recruiting sergeant.” During Reconstruction, Nast’s cartoons portrayed President Andrew Johnson as a repressive autocrat and characterized Southerners as vicious exploiters of helpless blacks, revealing his bitter disappointment in postwar politics.