Party Symbols | National Museum of American History
Party symbols drawn from the natural world helped to dramatize political issues to reach 19th century Americans, including those who could not read. The donkey (also known as a jackass) as a Democratic symbol dates back to the late 1820s, when Whig attacks against Andrew Jackson rendered his name as “A. Jack-ass.” Medals illustrated with donkeys and pigs bore slogans criticizing Jackson for removing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. Born in Germany, Thomas Nast (1840–1902) immigrated to New York in 1846. Nast’s gifts for illustration and social observation found ready use in national mass-circulation news magazines that did not yet have the means to publish photographs. Nast published more than three thousand drawings, primarily in Harper’s Weekly between 1862 and 1885. Nast favored Union-affirming policies and enjoyed the relative autonomy to express his political views. Nast's early cartoons skewered the corrupt regime of New York City’s William Marcy “Boss” Tweed.