Thomas Nast

Some heretofore unknown (by me) facts about Thomas Nast, famous post-Civil War political cartoonist.

He was not American-born.  He was instead born in Landau, Germany to a Bavarian trombonist and his wife, and moved (with his mother) to the USA when he was 6 years old.  His father joined them a few years later when a tour of naval duty ended.

He was credited not only with creating the iconic figures representative of our current political parties (the elephant and the donkey) but with the "modern" image of Santa Claus as well.  It's NOT COKE'S FAULT.  I am actually a bit dubious about that claim, since A Visit from St. Nicholas predated Nast by several decades, and even though its depiction of Santa isn't quite how we usually portray him, it certainly lay a lot of groundwork ("chubby and plump" especially).  And of course, there are apparently pieces of evidence predating that with a lot of the same imagery.

Theodore Roosevelt appointed him the United States' Consul General to Ecuador in 1902, where he died a few years later during an outbreak of yellow fever.