The Men Behind the Pen
The individuals that grace the pages of our history textbooks are often Presidents, Hollywood stars, brilliant businessmen, or social activists. People like John F. Kennedy, Audrey Hepburn, Bill Gates, Harriet Tubman, and Gloria Steinem. However, the work of Thomas Nast, Clifford Berryman, and Herbert Block overlap into three centuries, commentated on the administrations of thirty presidents, outdate the film industry, and reflect technological and social change in every print, yet their names are rarely printed in textbooks. Chosen because of their prolific and lauded careers as well as their time periods, the drawings by Nast, Berryman, and Block depict a colorful and hysterical evolution of modern American cartooning. While political cartoonists' names are often only scribbled in the bottom corner of their sketches, the names of these men cover the virtual pages of this site.
Below are brief biographies about each cartoonist that also discuss the time periods they critiqued with their drawings. Compare the years each cartoonist worked and begin to think about the different types of issues, individuals, and events that defined their unique decades of artistry. This site aims to also showcase an evolution of modern political cartooning. We should start our analysis and decoding lesson by become better acquainted with the three individuals below and the worlds they lived in.
Thomas Nast
1840-1902
We all know him. With the long, white beard, rosy cheeks, and a round belly like “a bowlful of jelly,” he is recognizable to most of us. Now, the man I speak of is, of course, Santa Claus, but he is not the man I want to talk about. As the man who gave the Republican Party their elephant mascot, the inventor of the modern image of Santa Claus, and The Father of Political Cartoons, Thomas Nast is a name we should be familiar with. Thomas Nast was an infamously stubborn and opinionated German immigrant who revolutionized the power of civilian critique through his iconic political cartoons. We know his work, but we don’t know him. Despite his influence on 19th century politics, President Ulysses S. Grant even proclaiming “Two things elected me, the Sword of Sheridan and the pencil of Nast,”[1] the Harper’s Weekly cartoonist is absent from history textbooks.
As an employee for the New York publication from 1862-1886, Nast covered the debates, scandals, and celebrations of eight different Presidential campaigns. With his sketched caricatures and detailed landscapes, Nast’s work also provided a summary of the Civil War and highlighted his support for the Union. President Lincoln even proclaimed that “Thomas Nast had been our [the Union’s] best recruiting sergeant…his emblematic cartoons have never failed to arouse enthusiasm and patriotism, and have always seemed to come just when these articles were getting scare.”[2]
As Nast’s work and biography have been less than admired in recent history, so has the art and influence of the editorial cartoon. Although his life was marked with controversy, criticism, and competition, Nast’s legacy is one that encourages being critical of political leaders and standing up for what you believe is right despite the costs. A man praised as a patriotic hero and ingenious artistic by both President Lincoln and President Grant should be celebrated by average Americans today. Where donkeys and elephants are currently at each other’s throats, the story of a man who changed politics with his pen is a tail that shouldn’t be forgotten. While Santa Claus may have put this nasty inventor on the naughty list, modern recognition of Thomas Nast would certainly be nice.
[1] Michael Pollack, “Tributes to Thomas Nast, Kingmaker Cartoonist” (New York City: New York Times (1999)
[2] Albert Bigelow Paine, Thomas Nast: His Period and His Pictures (New York City: Chelsea House Publishers, 1980), 69
[The political cartoons images drawn by Thomas Nast were found at the National Museum of American History, National Archives and Library of Congress. The cartoons of Thomas Nast are in the public domain and many were reproduced in Fiona Deans Halloran's biography of the cartoonist, Thomas Nast: The Father of Modern Political Cartoons]
Clifford Berryman
1869-1949
Following in the footsteps of Nast, often even drawing on the same themes and symbols as his predecessor, Berryman contributed to the pool of iconic editorial cartoon symbols with his representation of President Theodore Roosevelt as a teddy bear. Berryman began his successful career as an editorial cartoonist for the Washington Post from 1891-1907. By the end of 1907, Berryman had transferred to The Washington Star where he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1944 and continued to draw cartoons until his death in 1949.
Berryman utilized strategic symbols and lifelike caricatures to most frequently lampoon the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt, Howard Taft, and Franklin Roosevelt. As a prolific cartoonist through the end of the Gilded Age, climax of the Progressive Era, terror of the first world war, destitution of the Great Depression, and the rise of Nazi Germany, Berryman’s drawings commented and captured some of the most capricious times of American history.
[The political cartoon images drawn by Clifford Berryman were found at the Clifford K. Berryman Cartoon Collection at the National Archives: https://www.archives.gov/legislative/research/special-collections/berryman]
Herbert Block
1909-2001
Also known by his endearing abbreviation “Herblock,” Block’s career of clever doodling stretched across almost nine decades. Beginning as cartoonist first for the Chicago Daily News from 1929-1933, Block was eventually hired as the chief editorial cartoonist at the Washington Post in 1944. In the midst of World War II, Block’s cartoons echoed the fear of the American public as the Third Reich attempted to control the continent of Europe. Hitler and his Third Reich were frequently caricatured and critiqued in Block’s black and white cartoons. Into the 1960s and 1970s, Block charted the progress of impending Soviet aggression and tracked the hysteria of the Cold War. However, Block is most famous for (or infamous depending on the perspective) his cartoons indicting the character of Richard Nixon during the Watergate Scandal.
As the topics and caricatures of political cartooning evolved, so did the artistic style published in newspapers. Block's cartoons are more simplistic with thick lines that attract attention to the punchline of the drawing. Attention on background drawings and artistry shifted to a focus on creating witty and succinct images that were decipherable by any newspaper reader.
[The political cartoon sketches and images drawn by Herbert Block are from the Herblock! digital exhibit at the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/herblock/?loclr=blogtea]