Summary
Thomas Nast was born on 1840 in Germany before relocating to New York City in 1946 (Anonymous, 2008). It was during his time in New York that Nast studied art. After his study, he began his work as an artist with several papers. Thomas Nast was a famous cartoonist who is widely known for his work.
During that time, artists were required to convert photographs or images into line art in order to be prepared into blocks that were them used in printing pictures on papers. This required the artists to look at the picture keenly and then come up with the original image.
Nast was mostly doing such kind of work in his early days. However, he never received enough recognition for this, as he was working through other people. In other words, his effort was not attributed to the newspapers (Brown, n.d). Therefore, Thomas Nast’s role began as soon as he started working as an artist.
Thomas Nast’s Role in the History of Print Media, Communication, and Politics
Thomas Nast played a significant role in the history of print media and politics. He was widely known as a political commentator, and through his work, Nast managed to impact significantly on political arena. For instance, his work as an artist contributed to the success of Abraham Lincoln’s election for the second term as a president (Anonymous, 2008).
Nast also contributed significantly to criticizing the corrupt leaders in the country (Anonymous, 2008). By so doing, Nast managed to facilitate accountability among the leaders. Through his artwork, Nast managed to pass effective political messages, which to some extent had an impact on the people.
In his work, Nast managed to bring about visual impact. All these were facilitated by the ability of his work to direct or control the public’s opinions (Conn. 1989). By managing to control the public opinion, Nast managed to have a great influence on politics. For instance, his specific topic on certain field would have a big impact on people’s mind on how they viewed certain topics.
During the civil war years, Nast’s work hand a great impact on people. For instance, he did a lot of work that was against slavery.
This compelled people to demand for their freedom. In other words, his work incited people to really understand their suffering and act accordingly. Moreover, his work revealed the southern people as big enemies and barbarous people (Scholars Resource, not dated).
William Tweed Cartoon Picture Made by Thomas Nast
As already noted, most of Nast’s work aimed at condemning some of the corrupt leaders. The cartoon below is one of these examples.
William Tweed as demonstrated by Nast. Source: Feiffer, J. (2000).
This cartoon was developed in 1870’s, the time when Tweed, who was a politician, was engaged in a scandal involving embezzlement of public funds. Nast later developed a series of such cartoons, which revealed other corrupt politicians.
In conclusion, it can be seen that Nast’s work had a significant impact on the way in which people viewed certain things. Who managed to influence people through his work, which he used to drive people’s emotions.
As already seen, he significantly influenced people from political aspect, as well as social aspects. This was demonstrated through his influence both in pre and post civil wars.
References
Anonymous. (2008). Works of Thomas Nast. Web.
Brown, R. (N.d). Thomas Nast: The Power of One Person’s Wood Engravings. Web.
Conn, P. (1989). Literature in America: an illustrated history. NY: CUP Archive.
Feiffer, J. (2000). American Political Cartoons: an Introduction. Web.
Scholars Resource. (N.d). Thomas Nast. Web.