Journal of the Thomas Nast Society Vol
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Journal of The Thomas Nast Society Vol. 13 No. 1 1999 President's Message ALICE CAULKINS Nast on the Cover of Time RICHARD SAMUEL WEST Thomas Nast's Holidays JEFFREY EGER Dearest Sallie... Sarah Nast, the Woman Who Inspired Thomas Nast CHRISTINE JOCHEM 3D from 2D: An Authentic Re-creation of JOHN BATTRAM Thomas Nast's Santa Claus Costume AND JEFFREY EGER Clement Moore and Thomas Nast: Santa Claus in the Big Apple JEFFREY EGER Update: The World of Thomas Nast JOHN ADLER Thomas Nast and David Ross Locke: Mocking Birds of a Feather PAUL P. SOMERS, JR. Thomas Nast and the New York Illustrated News, Part IV: The War Between the States JEFFREY EGER Allusion and Illusion: The Robinson Crusoe of Thomas Nast JEFFREY EGER Contributors ii; Journal of The Thomas Nast Society Vol. 13 No. 1 1999 The Journal of The Thomas Nast Society is published annually by The Thomas Nast Society, a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Its address is the Morristown-Morris Township Public Library, 1 Miller Road, Morristown, N.J. 07960, (Telephone: 973-538- 3473). The Journal is a benefit of membership in the Society. All correspondence should be sent to the Morristown address. Manuscripts are welcome. Please contact the editor for more information. Officers of the Society: Alice Caulkins, President; Christine Jochem, Treasurer. Board of Trustees: William R. Battey (honorary), Alice Caulkins, Chris Jochem, Jeffrey Eger, Marian R. Gerhart (honorary), Draper Hill (honorary), Ken Miller, Nancy Miller, Thomas Nast III (honorary), Michael Rockland, and Richard Simon. Editor: Jeffrey Eger Researcher: Asa Eger Layout and Design: Shalit Design Works © 1999 by The Thomas Nast Society V. President's Message We're late. We're late, for a very important date. For the rest of the world bent on sitting in the foxholes until Y2K passed overhead, Nast-o-philes simply ignored the acronym and slogged through the time warp until all the "i's* were dotted and the at's" crossed. We are back with an ever-mounting critical mass of new Nast perspectives. Two articles focus on Nast and his Santa Claus creation. A vignette about Mrs. Nast offers insights into Nast's favorite collaborator. Another collaborator, Petroleum Nasby, is given a thorough going-over. Nast's continuing work at The New York Illustrated News cov ers the beginning years of the Civil War. Though his Civil War illustrations for Harper's Weekly became legendary, his earlier work provided fertile ground for soon-to-be realized greatness. A classic literary work, Robinson Crusoe, is analyzed in the light of Nast's many interpretations of the book. Another arti cle explaining how Nast continued his career after Harper's Weekly is the first in a series of Nast's short-lived connections to a number of magazines in the 1890s. A special pictorial essay pays homage to Nast's vision of holidays. We urge our devoted readers to submit articles which expand the universe according to Thomas Nast. Surely that would not be too much to ask, to keep "them damn pictures" flowing. Alice Caulkins President of The Thomas Nast Society / "PLANTED NEWLY WITH THE 'TIME.'" Page 1 ratol>» Ttmt r\*H>Umt <«s M3-M4 WMiana;M> >»* ••aw TOSS, josre >», iu» PUCK, Tsacsns. Nast on the Cover of Time more years. Byl888, Tid-Bits was a by Richard Samuel West weekly of nearly all fresh material, not primarily a reprint sheet, so the owners changed the name (to "Time") and raised Time began publication on August 23, the price to ten cents, in recognition of 1884, as Tid-Bits, a humor magazine its status as a full-fledged competitor to "containing original matter and selec Life, Puck, Judge, and Texas Shiftings, tions from the best books, newspapers, America's leading humor magazines, all and periodicals in the world." It was of which sold for a dime. published by John V. Lovell, who spe In the 20 months of Time's existence, cialized in cheap paperback printings of W H Bradshaw was president of the literary classics and contemporary mid publishing company and John D. Adams dle-brow fiction. At two cents an issue, was editor of the magazine. During Tid-Bits was the cheapest magazine on Time's first year, A. Coles was the chief the newsstand. Even though the early cartoonist, assisted by G. R. Brill. Both issues were printed on poor paper and were competent caricaturists and Time contained almost no original material, did good work during the 1888 presiden its low price was its selling point and it tial campaign for the Republican cause. sold well. During the 20 months of Exactly a year after the name change, on Lovell's ownership, the magazine gradu June 29, presumably because the maga ally became more and more respectable, zine's fortunes were languishing, benefiting from a pleasant face-lift and a Thomas Nast's work began appearing in greater amount of original content. Time. In addition to the charming cover When Lovell sold out in April 1886 to a self-portrait, Nast redrew the magazine's group of investors calling themselves the nameplate, and contributed a double- Time Publishing Company, the maga spread cartoon on Tammany, patronage, zine was a respectable competitor to the and the new Republican administration. comic Life magazine, rather than a In that issue, Adams announced that cheap repository of clipped jokes. The Thomas Nast would draw two cartoons a new owners improved the paper stock week for the magazine to make its and raised the price to five cents but, "Republicanism stronger." This was a inexplicably, kept the old name for two curious claim indeed since Nast had sup- Page 2 IWCK, IIS CWTS. ported Cleveland in the late election followed a predictable pattern. He drew (even working in the pay of the most of his inspiration from the news of Democratic National Committee). On Washington, Albany, City Hall, and safer ground, Adams called Nast, "The Europe. Very few of his Time cartoons best known cartoonist in the United were social satires and none was liter States" saying, "[h]is hand has lost none ary. There were several obligatory of its cunning, and vice and folly will sit Christmas and New Years cartoons and more uneasily in high places, because about the same on the weather. But, if politics will not in future demand all of anything, Nast's touch was heavier in Mr. Nast's attention; but social, race and Time than it had been in other more seri literary foibles will also be the targets of ous journals for which he drew in the late his good-humored and refined satire." eighties and early nineties. Some of his This turned out to be a promise large Time cartoons are down-right baroque, ly unfulfilled. Nast's cartoons for Time with labored drawings and virtually Page 3 I unintelligible captions. But others, such (12/7/89). This was a time-worn charge, as those printed in the portfolio that fol having been leveled at Puck and its lows, show Nast at his brightest in the Germanic owners for a decade. It's a par final phase of his career. ticularly strange one when linked to Later in the year, when Harper and praise for Nast, since he was German- Brothers published Nast's "Christmas born. Drawings for the Human Race," Adams Perhaps these were the comments of took the opportunity to slur Time's com a frustrated man. Time's time, by this petition. "Mr. Nast's drawing appeals to time, was nearly up. In the February 22 all ages and conditions....Always refined, issue, the publishers announced that good-humored and American, Mr. Nast's Time would merge immediately with drawing is in refreshing contrast to the Munsey's Weekly, another Republican coursely conceived cartoons of foreign humor magazine in the Life mold. It was draftsmen, whose work is current in an inauspicious beginning of the decade some illustrated papers in this city," for Nast. While he would work for a half dozen magazines and newspapers dur ing the next ten years, none of the asso ciations would be long-lasting, renumer- ative, or professionally satisfying. Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 i Ihm. jufcn^ trty it Page 7 *»«• «• «•• *74 MBW YORK, NOVSaUMtft a, tSSs. FRICK, TEN CKMTa. THE OUJ, UI.I) STORY m y*l 1 STXEET. Give him tape enough and—you Vnow the res Page 8 44$WC Gmxsjfifa ^^firiows. Page 9 AN F.VERLASTiNG SUBJECT OF CONVERSATION. As tar b»ci is Time cas rtawmbcr, " tit wtatktr Mas ban most aJraerdinar Page 10 The following is an incomplete chronology of cartoons by Thomas Nast for Time Magazine. 1889 6/29 • Cover: "Planted Newly with the 'Time'" (self-portrait) • CS(Center Spread):" 'A Time for Private Stomaching"* - Shakespeare. "The course of (Victorious) love never did run smooth." (Tammany, patronage, and GOP) 7/6 • Cover: The Esthetic Jersey Lily's Triumph Over the Prussian Eisen Und Blut Wurst. "Pretty sort of treatment for a military man." - Patience. (Bismarck and the Samoan Islands controversy) • P. 3: Page: John Gilbert. "An Actor and a Gentleman." (portrait) • CS: Making Political Capital. No hypocrisy is stamped on this measure./No false pretences, unfair discriminations./ No false arguments, flimsy pretexts and prepos terous claims. (Gov. David Hill and the tariff on whiskey) 7/13 • Cover: A Prohibition Wake. Both parties happy over it. (The whiskey issue) • CS: No Foreign Sunday for U.S. This Nation has rights that even foreigners are bound to respect. N.B. - It's dangerous for Dutch Uncles to masquerade as Uncle Sam. (Sunday blue laws) 7/20 • Cover: More Protection Necessary.