Often considered the father of Political cartoons, Thomas Nast developed a style of reporting the news that captured the attention of his audience in a way that reporters never knew existed. His style of political reporting comically mocked Government officials and worked to end political corruption in the years after the Civil War. His ability to sway people's political opinions with his style of art makes him a very influential political artist even in this day and age.

Nast was born in Landau in deer Pflaz, Germany in 1840. At the age of six, Nast and his family moved to America where he was placed in a New York public school system. During the six years that Nast attended public school, he appeared to show interest in no other studies but drawing and so was transferred from public school to a private art school where he demonstrated incredible talent for a child his age. Much to Nast's dismay he was forced to quit his training in the arts in order to support his family. He was lucky enough though to obtain a job as an illustrator for Frank Leslie's Illustrated.

In 1860, Nast was sent to England by the New York Illustrator as an artist

to cover the Heenan-Sayers world champ

From 1861 to 1884 the circulation of Harper's Weekly increased from 100,000 copies to 300,000 due to the dedication that Nast showed the republican party. The death of a close friend and supporter Fletcher Harper led Nast to difficult times in the following years with the staff of Harper's Weekly. The combination of new editors questioning Nast's liberal ideas and the fact that Nast would not tolerate censorship saying, "Policy, always strangles individuals." led to his retirement from Harper's Weekly in 1886.

In the years following his retirement from Harper's Weekly, Nast worked on several projects including a collection of Christmas drawings entitled, Thomas Nast's Christmas Drawings for the Human Race. The year 1893 Nast fulfilled a lifelong dream by starting a magazine of his own called, Nast's Weekly. This project was doomed to fail as he was the sole financial provider for the magazine. Towards the end of the 1800s found Nast living quietly in his home in Morristown, New Jersey. The oil paintings he produced during this time were highly regarded especially the works pertaining to the Civil War. Thomas Nast's last years were spent alone trying to pay off debts at a military post in Ecuador as a Consul General. Within six months of ar

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