Investor's Business Daily, October 2nd, 2007
Thomas Nast faced big hurdles.
As a recent immigrant to the U.S., he struggled with reading and writing English in school. The classroom became frustrating for him.
Nast figured there had to be a way for him to communicate clearly. He found it in drawing. His keen observations helped him put in figures what he couldn't in words. He spent hours perfecting his illustrations.
Coupled with his convictions about right and wrong, Nast's dedication helped him overcome his stumbling blocks and rise to become one of the nation's greatest visual communicators.
When Nast (1840-1902) came to New York City from Germany with his family at age 6, he loved to draw. Eager to hone his skills, he gave up regular school at 13 to study art at the New York Academy of Design.
There he sought out experts. For his effort, several well-known painters, including Alfred Fredericks, aided and instructed him.
When Nast was 15, he sought out a job that was popular with aspiring artists. He buttonholed the editor of a weekly illustrated news magazine.
Frank Leslie of Leslie's Weekly tried to get rid of young Nast. He gave him a freelance assignment that he thought Nast couldn't do.
Leslie sent the artist one Sunday morning to the Christopher Street ferry dock in downtown New York. There, hundreds of immigrant families left for and returned from picnic spots in New Jersey.
"The boy went early and worked late," said biographer Albert Paine. "Between boats, he drew the details of the scene. Then when the boat came, and the gates opened to let the crowd push through, he made swift mental pictures.
"When all was quiet again, he added to his drawing."
Leslie was so impressed with his picture, he put Nast on his staff.
At magazines of that time, artists played the role now filled by photographers. For those who couldn't read English well, the artists were the reporters. Nast's assignments ranged from drawing pictures for an expose of the milk industry to covering prizefights.
Nast's illustrations helped Leslie's Weekly force city officials to enforce health rules in the milk business. The effort was Nast's first glimpse into city government corruption. He also saw how much power the press could wield to change things. Nast's mentor at Leslie's, Sol Eytinge, started doing work for the more prestigious Harper's. Nast tried out there, too. One of his assignments there was a series on police scandals in New York.
Nast knew how to expand on an opportunity. He parlayed an assignment for several papers to cover a prizefight in London into on-the-scene picture reporting of Giuseppe Garibaldi's campaign to unite Italy. He joined the Italian leader's troops and traveled with them through the country for much of 1860. Nast sold his drawings of the campaign to U.S. and European papers.
By the time the U.S. Civil War started, Nast had joined Harper's staff. He created large tableaux of Civil War battles from New York, drawing on his memories of Italy.
Nast's pictures drove home the atrocities and bloodiness of the war. Union troops saw his pieces as expressions of support.
These projects helped Nast develop as an opinion shaper, says historian James Parton.
"From a roving lad with a pencil for sale, he had become a patriotic artist, burning with the enthusiasm of the time," Parton said.
Nast didn't consider these pictures works of art, but blows he struck for a cause. "They did not echo public sentiment, but led it," Paine said.
Nast's fans included President Lincoln and Gen. Ulysses Grant. They both noted that Nast was their best recruiting officer.
After the war, lawmakers set about rebuilding the nation. Nast looked for a new tool to help distinguish the characters in the political debate for his audience. After experimenting with hundreds of ideas, he settled on what he thought gave him the most leverage: caricature.
Rather than exaggerate his subjects' features to mock them, Nast focused on one or two of their features to help readers identify them. He then placed his characters in a situation and asked readers to pass judgment on them.
He lampooned Horatio Seymour, the Democrats' choice in the 1868 election, by showing him giving a friendly speech to draft rioters in New York City five years earlier. On an opposite panel, he showed the Republican choice, Grant, at the Battle of Vicksburg at the same time.
Nast used other devices to help readers understand issues. He often surrounded his main picture with smaller tableaux showing some of his subjects' past actions. To make his points, Nast would serialize his pictures over weeks or months.
Nast created a number of enduring icons. He first drew the Republican elephant, Democratic donkey, Tammany tiger and Santa Claus.
His methods were well suited to his fight against the Tweed political ring in New York. Democrat William Marcy Tweed and his henchmen controlled just about every public post in the city and many in the state legislature.
The New York Times uncovered documents that undid the Tweed ring. But Tweed feared Nast most.
"I don't care so much what the papers write about me," Tweed said. "My constituents can't read. But damn it, they can see pictures!"
This story originally ran Aug. 13, 2002, on Leaders & Success.
