>>> fiona deans halloran, author of "thomas nast: the father of modern political cartoons," and "salt lake tribune" editorial cartoonist pat bagley talk about the life and work of famous 19th century "harper's weekly" political cartoonist thomas nast. they discuss the political issues he engaged with and the symbols he popularized such as the democratic donkey, republican elephant, and santa claus. the massachusetts historical society hosted this event and provided the video. >> our program tonight is very much directly related to our online exhibition. i hope you all check it out if you have not done so already. it's a great show, and somehow incredibly relevant these days. this show was originally planned to be a physical show at the massachusetts historical society. and as a part of that physical show, we had intended to dedicate one room to thomas nast, the father of american political cartoons. obviously that didn't happen. but we did build an online exhibition as a companion website that explores the life of thomas nast. this is a really fun project of the illustrations in it we

that brings us to this evening's program, which will include fiona deans halloran and pat baggily. they will be speaking on a life of thomas nast. he created or popularized the democratic donkey, and the republic elephant, and the modern depictions of santa claus. well he helped with culture, he sometimes had certain depictions of african americans. this will help us better understand nast and his legacy. pat baggily he is the longest full-time employed cartoonist in america. she has created over. cartoons he has won dozens of awards and including being a finalist for the culture prize. and was just nominated best kurt cartoons of the year. and we will have q&as at the end of our program but we encourage everyone to use the function at the bottom of their screen and you can actually type in questions anytime during the program as it's relevant to the topic that we're discussing. so without further ado, i will encourage fiona deans halloran you to join us. >> well what we've asked to do is begin by talking about thomas nast both generally and in specific terms. so we have some image

. >>> fiona deans halloran, author of "thomas nast: the father of modern political cartoons," and "saltake tribune" editorial cartoonist pat bagley talk about the life and work of famous 19th century "harper's weekly" political cartoonist thomas nast. they discuss the political issues he engaged with and the symbols he popularized such as the democratic donkey, republican elephant, and santa claus. the massachusetts historical society hosted this event and provided the video. >> our program tonight is very much directly related to our online exhibition. i hope you all check it out if you have not done so already. it's a great show, and somehow incredibly relevant these days. this show was originally planned to be a physical show at the massachusetts historical society. and as a part of that physical show, we had intended to dedicate one room to thomas nast, the father of american political cartoons.