EXHIBITION OPENING PROGRAM: Presidents, Politics, and the Pen: The Influential Art of Thomas Nast

September 10, 2016 @ 5:30 pm EDT - 7:30 pm EDT

Join award-winning political cartoonist and historian Steve Brodner for a lively look at Thomas Nast’s controversial career and the powerful images that shaped public opinion and affected the outcomes of several presidential elections. Reception and refreshments on the terrace, with music from the Jeff Link Trio (Jeff Link on bass, Ben Kohn on piano, and Jack Dinecola on drums).

Free for members; $20 for not-yet-members

The e-newsletter trivia question was: Who popularized use of the elephant as a symbol for the Republican Party and the donkey for Democratic Party?

Answer:  Thomas Nast created the use of the political symbol of the elephant for the Republican Party (GOP) as well as the modern version of Santa Claus (based on the traditional German figures of Sankt Nikolaus and Weihnachtsmann). Contrary to popular belief, Nast did not create Uncle Sam (the male personification of the American people), Columbia (the female personification of American values), or the Democratic donkey, though he did popularize these symbols through his artwork.

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Land Acknowledgement

It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking and gathering on the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, who are the indigenous peoples of this land on which the Norman Rockwell Museum was built. Despite tremendous hardship in being forced from here, today their community resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We pay honor and respect to their ancestors past and present as we commit to building a more inclusive and equitable space for all.

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