Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

Thomas Nast's political cartoons made statements about what he supported and didn't support. Pick a current event topic. What are your thoughts about it? Do you support it? Does it align with your values? Draw a political cartoon for that current event topic either on paper or digitally on this page. 

Student Engagement: Draw Your Own Political Cartoon

Click through the slide show to read more about Thomas Nast's life and accomplishments. 

Thomas Nast- The Artist

Click on the stars to learn about the image below. Question to consider: How can political cartoon communicate current events?

Thomas Nast Illustrates Current Events

This is one of Thomas Nast’s most powerful Civil War engravings created when he was just 22 years old. In this double-page centerfold Nast illustrates what he believed to be the past and the future of enslaved people in the United States.  Click on each blue star to learn more about the image.

Thomas Nast Illustrates Values: Emancipation

Team USA gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik at the 2024 Paris Olympics, NBC

Student Engagement: Memes

"The Colored Volunteer" and "Light Artillery" and "Girls with Dolls" are companion images in which Nast uses children to illustrate the hopeful impact of the phrase “forever free” of the Emancipation Proclamation.  Click through the slideshow to learn more about the two sets of images. 

Thomas Nast's Intended Audience

Thomas Nast used the figure of Columbia to represent the moral conscience of the United States. During Reconstruction from 1865-1875, Nast transformed this allegorical figure from a figure representing the grief of a wounded nation to one personifying justice and equal treatment. Click through the slide show to see how Nast used the image of Columbia in three different political cartoons.

Thomas Nast Illustrates Values: Columbia

Find a political cartoon either online or in print. Where did you find your political cartoon? Who is in the political cartoon? What is the political cartoon about?

Student Engagement: Find a Political Cartoon

Think about how the arts and any kind of visual medium shape memory and opinion in our democratic society, and how that has been happening for centuries especially as illustrated by Thomas Nast, and how this continues today. 

Wrap-Up Discussion Questions

Thomas Nast (1840-1902) worked at one of the most important illustrated newspapers in the United States during the 19th century. Nast worked for "Harper's Weekly" during the American Civil War (1861-1865). President Abraham Lincoln called Nast his "best recruiting sergeant" for the Union because of the power of his illustrations. Nast built readers' visual literacy through thousands of published images.  Nast's political cartoons addressed current events in the United States during his lifetime including: slavery, political corruption, race, war, and other themes.


This Resource Kit examines a selection of Nast's political cartoons from the Civil War and asks the following questions: 


How does an artist's values impact their work?
Why does the intended audience matter?
How do political cartoons communicate current events?

Macculloch Hall Historical Museum Website

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

Political Cartoons: Thomas Nast's Editorial Perspective of Current Events in his Time

Student Engagement: Draw Your Own Political Cartoon

Background Knowledge