Nast's groundbreaking cartoons, such as his iconic depiction of a black family facing a Klansman, used symbols like the elephant and donkey to represent political parties. His dense and ...

But it was Nast’s revival of the Democratic donkey in his Jan. 18, 1870 cartoon, shown above — “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” — that popularized the symbol. The cartoon depicts ...

A play on the proverb “a live ass is better than a dead lion”, Nast’s cartoon carries a different message. In it the donkey—ears back, hind legs poised to deliver a vicious blow⁠—is ...

In an 1874 cartoon published in Harper's Weekly, Nast depicted a donkey (representing the Democratic press) in a lion's skin scaring away animals, including an elephant labeled "The Republican Vote." ...