that brings us to this evening's program which will include fiona deen tolerant and pat bagley. will be speaking on the life of thomas next was a pioneer in american political cartoons. he created or popularized the republican elephant the democratic donkey and the modern depictions of santa claus while he helped create modern american visual culture. he also presented conflicting and sometimes disturbing depictions of african-americans. these two experts will help us better understand nast in his legacy fiona dean holland is the author of thomas nast the father of modern political cartoons. she holds a phd in american history from ucla and has been supported in her research by grant from the neh the guilder lerman institute the huntington library and the university of oxford. she now teaches in san diego, california. bagley is the longest continually employed full-time editorial cartoonist in america. he has created over 10,000 cartoons in the 40 years. he's worked at the salt lake tribune. he has won dozens of awards. um, including being a finalist for the pulitzer prize and w