Best Harpers Weekly
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Thomas Nast’s 1871 Harper’s Weekly caricature powerfully exposed corruption within Tammany Hall during the Gilded Age. The image depicts William Tweed’s head transformed into a money bag, labeled “The Brains,” highlighting his control and illicit wealth. This influential artwork played a crucial rol...
Thomas Nast’s 1874 Harper’s Weekly caricature features a Republican elephant wearing a donkey's skin and attempting to escape a trap. This image powerfully established the elephant as the dominant symbol for the Republican Party in America. It was notable for its strategic use of symbolism during th...
Thomas Nast’s 1870 Harper’s Weekly caricature depicts a donkey labeled “Copperhead Press” forcefully striking a fallen lion. This image significantly contributed to establishing the donkey as the Democratic Party's iconic symbol during the Gilded Age. The cartoon satirized anti-Lincoln sentiment and...
Nast's 1863 Harper's Weekly illustration depicting Santa Claus visiting Union soldiers is credited with standardizing the modern American image of Santa as a jolly, fur-suited figure distributing gifts.
Published in New York from 1857 to 1916, Harper's Weekly was an influential American political magazine famous for the satirical caricatures of Thomas Nast.
Nast's November 1871 Harper's Weekly cover depicts a Tammany tiger mauling a woman representing the Republic in a Roman arena, helping galvanize New York public opinion against the Tweed Ring.
Thomas Nast caricatured Ulysses S. Grant in Harper's Weekly, where Nast (1840–1902) also established the Republican elephant and Democratic donkey as enduring American political symbols.
Drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly in 1872, these biting caricatures helped defeat presidential candidate Horace Greeley by attacking his political inconsistencies.
Thomas Nast caricatured New York Republican senator Roscoe Conkling in Harper's Weekly, subjecting the Gilded Age political boss to the same pointed scrutiny he applied to Boss Tweed.
Nast's 1872 Harper's Weekly cartoon shows Boss Tweed standing beyond the reach of the law, questioning whether a figure of such political power could ever face legal accountability in Gilded Age America.
