Thomas Nast exhibit captures Christmas during the Civil War

If you are a Civil War buff and enjoy looking at historic cartoons, there’s a new exhibit you shouldn’t miss this holiday season. 

Thomas Nast has been dubbed the “Father of the American Cartoon” and was one of the greatest political influences during the 19th century. The German-born American who became a caricaturist war correspondent for Harper’s Weekly during the Civil War is also responsible for the animals that have to come to symbolize our two main political parties: the donkey for the Democrats and the elephant for the GOP. 

Much of Nast’s work is housed in the Macculloch Hall Historical Museum in Morristown, N.J. The site boasts more than 3,000 original images and exhibits on display that provide a rich and comprehensive representation of his life’s work. 

Now some of his most famous “Christmas during the Civil War” cartoons have come to the Lee-Fendall House Museum and Garden in Old Town Alexandria and will be on public display during the holiday season. 

One image that evokes these emotions can be seen at the Lee-Fendall House and is titled “The Union Christmas Dinner.” President Lincoln is seen inviting in many men, but there are still empty seats around the dinner table, in particular the illustration shows the bare seats of North and South Carolina, which had seceded from the Union. 

Lee-Fendall House Executive Director Erin Adams said that she wanted to bring the exhibit as close to Washington, D.C., as possible so people could see how the Christmas holiday was experienced during the Civil War. 

“We’re the only house museum that interprets the Civil War through a living family, as this house was a hospital and a home during the conflict.”

Visitors to the Lee-Fendall House will be able to see the collection as they wrap up their tour of the home.

“We will be hanging them in chronological order. Visitors will finish with Thomas Nast, and I hope it gives them a gallery type of experience. The images coming from New Jersey will be highlighting Christmas and New Year’s during the Civil War,” said Adams.

The exhibition hopes to highlight the great achievements and sorrows of the Civil War and keep the memories and history of that time constant in the minds of future generations.

“We hope to make it an intimate interaction between the museum and people,” said Adams. 

Nast’s love for visual expression stemmed in part from the fact that he was dyslexic. All his words throughout his drawings were actually written by his wife in the early days before he learned to write them correctly for the wood carvers to carve on the slabs for printing. 

Macculloch Hall Curator Ryan Hyman said the real reason Nast was popular was because he illustrated the complexities of his time in simple, funny and easy to understand illustrations. 

“He drew so those that couldn’t read could understand what was happening between the Union and the South.” 

Nast’s technique is still famous among today’s artists. 

“People still come to our museum to see the way he did his crosshatching,” said Hyman. 

He was the “artist of the people” and an American legacy. Lincoln called him “the best recruiting soldier of his time.”