Last update:04 November 2024, 5:39 p.m. IST

2024 US election: German-born American political cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized illustrations of donkeys and elephants, representing Democrats and Republicans respectively, in the 19th century.

Although the donkey is not as prominently featured by Democrats as the elephant is by Republicans, during the 2024 Democratic National Convention the animal was spotted on merchandise for sale on the Democratic National Convention’s website. party. (Getty Images)

Since 1853, every American president has belonged to either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Did you know that the cartoonist behind Santa Claus and Uncle Sam also popularized illustrations of donkeys and elephants, representing Democrats and Republicans respectively?

It was Thomas Nast, political cartoonist at Harper’s Weekly from 1862 to 1886, who drew the elephant in the magazine that became the symbol of the Republican Party.

About Nast and his representations

The famous 19th-century American political cartoonist is best known for his intricately detailed woodcuts and his take on the Civil War, the follies of Reconstruction and immigration.

It is suggested that the word “wicked” is derived from the artist’s last name. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “It was a time when political cartoons…actually had the power to change the minds and influence undecided voters by distilling complex ideas into more compressible depictions.” Cartoons had power. »

Nast fought bullies during his childhood in New York in the 1840s and 1850s. The trauma was reflected in his drawings, with bullies depicted in all shapes and sizes and in his compassion for victims.

In one of his famous 1875 cartoons, “Worse Than Slavery,” Nast drew a helpless black family cowering before a smiling Klansman. In another, “They Swallow Each Other,” “there are no victims, only two bloated, bug-eyed men depicted as ouroboroi,” according to CNN.

Nast, of German descent, is also associated with another political animal, the ferocious Tammany Tiger, whom he featured in an 1871 Harper’s Weekly cartoon that attacked William “Boss” Tweed of New York and Tammany Hall, his corrupt political machine.

How did elephants and donkeys become popular?

In an 1874 cartoon titled “Third Panic,” Nast is credited with showing the elephant as a symbol of the Republican Party. The New York Heraldwho supported several Democratic candidates in the midterms, had spread the rumor that President Ulysses Grant, a Republican, was considering running for a third time in 1876, which was not legal until enactment of the 22nd Amendment.

Nast, who supported Republican Abraham Lincoln, “drawn the Herald as a donkey wrapped in a lion’s skin, scaring the other animals with wild stories about a Grant dictatorship,” according to CNN.

“Like the best satirists, he ridiculed his own side almost as gleefully as that of his opponents – and so he reimagined the GOP as a weak, panicked creature that was constantly wrong. management, its size constitutes more of a liability than an asset,” he added.

In a typical Nast cartoon from 1879, “stubborn” donkeys were depicted swinging by their tails, about to fall into an abyss of “financial chaos.”

Pachyderms as republicans before

Nast was not the first artist to compare Republics to elephants. There were ads promoting the GOP with the slogan “see the elephant,” an obscure word from Civil War slang that roughly translates to “fight bravely.” And the story of the donkey with the lion’s skin dates back to Aesop.

Has either party tried to change the symbols?

In 1985, New York magazine reported that the Democratic Party was trying to let the donkey go. But there is little evidence that Democrats and Republicans have attempted to avoid animal symbols altogether.

Democratic Party press secretary Terry Michael said at the time that the party was not asking officials to refrain from using the symbol. Thus, the symbol is still used today.

Although the donkey was not highlighted by Democrats the way the elephant is by Republicans, during the 2024 Democratic National Convention the animal was featured on merchandise for sale on the Democratic National Convention’s website. party.

The elephant symbol is officially used by Republicans on their verified social media channels, and the icon is featured prominently on the party’s website.