Collage of historical images and cartoons of the American Civil War

Visual Culture of the American Civil WarA Special Feature of Picturing US History

Albert Bigelow Paine, Th. Nast: His Period and His Pictures – Excerpts: "Meeting Abraham Lincoln," "The Days of Conflict," "In the Draft Riots," "The War's Last Days" (1904)

The Civil War defined Thomas Nast as an illustrator and primarily as a political cartoonist. Twenty years old when the war began, Nast had the distinction of being the only “special artist” working for an American illustrated newspaper who had previously experienced warfare (when he covered Garibaldi’s Italian campaign in 1860). However, Nast rarely served as a battlefront artist during the Civil War; it was mainly through elaborate panoramic or allegorical illustrations and, especially, his cartoons that he began to gain a reputation and viewership that would continue to increase after the war. Popular writer Albert Bigelow Paine’s 1904 biography of Nast began as a series of conversations between the popular writer and the political cartoonist in a private New York men’s club. The chapters included here chronicle Nast’s Civil War years.The Civil War defined Thomas Nast as an illustrator and primarily as a political cartoonist. Twenty years old when the war began, Nast had the distinction of being the only “special artist” working for an American illustrated newspaper who had previously experienced warfare (when he covered Garibaldi’s Italian campaign in 1860). However, Nast rarely served as a battlefront artist during the Civil War; it was mainly through elaborate panoramic or allegorical illustrations and, especially, his cartoons that he began to gain a reputation and viewership that would continue to increase after the war. Popular writer Albert Bigelow Paine’s 1904 biography of Nast began as a series of conversations between the popular writer and the political cartoonist in a private New York men’s club. The chapters included here chronicle Nast’s Civil War years.

Creator: Albert Bigelow Paine

Source: Accessed via Internet Archive: http://archive.org/details/thnasthisperiod00paingoog

Publisher: Th. Nast: His Period and His Pictures - New York: Harpers & Brothers: 69-105

Date: 1904

Language: English