Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

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

Like political cartoons, memes can share ideas, styles, behavior, or language from person to person. Today, many politicians and public figures either manufacture memes or find themselves made into memes. Regardless of anyone's opinion of memes, they are commonplace in today's society. 

Today, memes can be made in an instant. Current events fuel the creation of new memes. Many memes are only relevant for a while before they are replaced or their content is no longer current. Some memes, like the one of Lebron James above, take inspiration from historic artwork. Who knows, maybe someday, memes will be in museums and galleries, as Thomas Nast's political cartoons are today.

Like political cartoons, memes are of a moment in time. They require the context of the time to understand the full meaning or joke. The references Nast may use in the political cartoons do not necessarily have the same impact on modern audiences as they would for Nast's contemporaries. Memes are similar. A meme from years ago may no longer be relevant to current audiences. 

2. What are some recent memes that were informed by current events?

3. How do you think people in the future will understand the memes of today? How does that inform your understanding of the political cartoons from Thomas Nast?

Student Engagement: Memes

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

"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'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

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: Memes

Background Knowledge

Discussion questions