Archer, Nude Study

1856

Becomes a draftsman at Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper

Starts working as a draftsman for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper.

19 March 1859

First drawing in Harper’s Weekly

His drawings appear in Harper’s Weekly for the first time, illustrating a report exposing police corruption; Nast is 18 years old.

1860

Joins Garibaldi in Italy

A few months later, as artist for The Illustrated London News, he joins Garibaldi in Italy. His cartoons and dispatches about the military campaign to unify Italy capture the popular imagination in the U.S.

1860s

Cartoons against President Andrew Johnson

After the war he strongly opposes the anti-Reconstruction policy of President Andrew Johnson, depicting him in a series of trenchant cartoons that mark “Nast’s great beginning in the field of caricature”.

February 1860

Travels to England for a prize fight

He goes to England for the New York Illustrated News to depict one of the major sporting events of the era, the prize fight between the American John C. Heenan and the Englishman Thomas Sayers, sponsored by George Wilkes, publisher of Wilkes’ Spirit of the Times.