b. 1840 Landau, Germany

d. 1902 Guayaquil, Ecuador

Nast immigrated to the United States from Landau, Germany when he was five years old. With only limited education and even less art training he joined the art staff of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper as a teenager sometime around 1855 (Although he had studied briefly at the National Academy of Design). He then moved to the New York Illustrated News in 1959. After traveling in Italy reporting on the campaign of Garibaldi, he joined Harper’s Weekly in 1862 as a staff artist and war correspondent during the Civil War. While working for Harper’s until 1887, Nast created hundreds of cartoons including those of national symbols still known to us today---the Democratic Donkey, Republican Elephant, Uncle Sam, Columbia, Tammany Tiger and Santa Claus.

Following reversals in both his relationship with the editor of Harper's and in his personal fortune, Nast was nearly bankrupt. During the civil war there was a dispute within Harper's as to whether Nast had intercepted drawings and dispatches from noted correspondent Alfred Waud and used the material as his own. After 1887 he worked for several other periodicals including the New York Hearld. In 1902, accepting the only steady paying job he could find, Nast was appointed by President Roosevelt as consul at Guayaquil, Ecuador. There he died of Yellow Fever (or malaria as some report).