Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

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'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

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

Civics and Government

Social Studies

U.S. History

Visual Arts

The Arts

Nast painted this diminutive pair of paintings as companion pieces, meaning he painted them as a pair to be displayed together, likely in his family home.  Painted during the Civil War, these images may be read as Nast’s opinion on race relations at the time. Each toddler holds a doll of the other girl's race and each doll is dressed to look like the other seated girl. 

They are currently on display at Macculloch Hall Historical Museum, and it is the first time these paintings have ever been on public display. 

The following two slides are close up images of both girls.

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Girls with Dolls

Nast used his oldest child, Julia, as the model for the white girl holding a Black doll. 

Though we do not know the identity of the model for the Black girl holding the white doll, Nast used this child as a model in at least one other image.

In his “The Emancipation of the Negroes” published in Harper’s Weekly on January 24, 1863, Nast models the little Black girl at home with her family after this child. 

The next two images are lithographs are in a series of five made from paintings that

commissioned from Thomas Nast. "The Colored Volunteer" and "Light Artillery" were published in 1863, the same year that President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and the first year that Black men were officially able to enlist into the Union Army. 

Nast depicts the young Black boy as an enlisted soldier, practicing marching holding a broom in place of a rifle.

In his “The Emancipation of the Negroes” published in Harper’s Weekly on January 24, 1863, Nast models the young Black boy at home with his family after this child. 

One of five colored lithographs printed in Currier and Ives

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The Colored Volunteer

Nast depicts the white boy pretending to be an officer from the comfort of his well-appointed home.

After seeing all four images, why do you think the intended audience for artwork matters? What can that tell you about a particular piece of art?

One of five colored lithographs made for Currier and Ives

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

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

Thomas Nast's Intended Audience

"Girls with Dolls"