Nast’s wife, Sallie, was his muse and modeled for his depictions of Columbia, the female embodiment of the American republic, Adler said. He was a German immigrant himself, growing up as an awkward youngster in a poor Irish-American neighborhood in lower Manhattan, Adler said, and Nast appears to have been singled out for rough treatment on the streets of the tenement district. Nast’s deep hostility toward the Irish immigrants in New York City, Adler says, may have been formed in his youth. Very pro-Indian,” Adler said, but also “very anti-Irish.” He deplored racial bigotry and rendered harsh judgment on lynch mobs who attacked Chinese workers in the West. Nast had progressive views about race and was outspoken in defense of African Americans during and after the Civil War. I’m not sure how easy he would have been to be with,” he said. “He was a very vain man, and egotistic - but for a reason. Nast was a man of contradictions and complexities, his biographer said. The Republican elephant, Uncle Sam, the Democratic donkey, which are alive today,” said Adler, whose home office in the Riverside section of Greenwich is covered with illustrations, articles, correspondence and lengthy biographies of 19th century American leaders. “His cartoons influenced five presidential elections - and he had such a legacy. He also popularized the look of a well-loved Christmas visitor “drawing Santa Claus with his own features,” Adler said. Nast occasionally depicted Tammany’s William “Boss” Tweed at his Greenwich seaside mansion, which functioned as the Tammany boss’s summertime headquarters on Indian Harbor.īeside his role as a king-maker in American politics whose pen helped take down Boss Tweed, Nast also created the cultural vocabulary and imagery still in use today, including the animals representing the two major political parties. Nast, who died in 1902 at age 62, came to prominence depicting political corruption in New York City, taking aim at Tammany Hall operatives who ruled the city with a mighty political machine powered by graft, favoritism and patronage jobs. And they are as apt today as they were back then.” “His cartoons display history the way it was. He was the most influential journalist in American history,” said Adler, a longtime Greenwich resident. “My aim is to get Thomas Nast known to the public.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |