Who created the elephant icon that represents Republican Party?

Answer 1

The traditional mascot of the party is the elephant.

A political cartoon by Thomas Nast, published in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874, is considered the first important use of the symbol, and popularized the symbol.

As symbol of the Republican party, the elephant represented Nast's political sentiments toward his own party, and also some of his despair that some of the qualities associated with that party seemed to be waning.

Nast wasn't the first to use this symbol of the Republican Party. His first drawing of the elephant symbol occurred in 1874, but some of Lincoln's campaign materials had a picture of an elephant too, and another cartoon depicting the party as an elephant was popularly viewed in 1872.

Nast's initial drawing of this symbol of the Republican Party occurred in a cartoon titled "The Third Panic," and it depicts the elephant as bounding into a pit across broken boards with the words inflation, reform, and repudiation written on them. Nast's drawing represents his view of the party's decline, especially in light of a financial panic at the time. According to Nast, the Republicans were falling victim to scare tactics of the Democrats and abandoning their party's platform.

Prior to Nast's use of the elephant, the eagle had been a common symbol of the Republican party, but in part due to Nast' prowess as a cartoonist, the elephant replaced the eagle in short order, and the Republican party officially adopted the large animal as its symbol. Though Nast's depiction was not that flattering and emphasized his own worries about a changing party, the elephant was still a large animal, and thought to have both dignity and strength. These qualities were considered admirable.

From the Official Republican National Committee website:

"The symbol of the Republican Party is the elephant. During the mid term elections way back in 1874, Democrats tried to scare voters into thinking President Grant would seek to run for an unprecedented third term. Thomas Nast, a cartoonist for Harper's Weekly, depicted a Democratic jackass trying to scare a Republican elephant - and both symbols stuck."

Answer 2

This symbol of the party was born in the imagination of cartoonist Thomas Nast and first appeared in Harper's Weekly on November 7, 1874. An 1860 issue of Railsplitter and an 1872 cartoon in Harper's Weekly connected elephants with Republicans, but it was Nast who provided the party with its symbol. Oddly, two unconnected events led to the birth of the Republican Elephant. James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald raised the cry of "Caesarism" in connection with the possibility of a thirdterm try for President Ulysses S. Grant. The issue was taken up by the Democratic politicians in 1874, halfway through Grant's second term and just before the midterm elections, and helped disaffect Republican voters. While the illustrated journals were depicting Grant wearing a crown, the Herald involved itself in another circulation-builder in an entirely different, nonpolitical area. This was the Central Park Menagerie Scare of 1874, a delightful hoax perpetrated by the Herald. They ran a story, totally untrue, that the animals in the zoo had broken loose and were roaming the wilds of New York's Central Park in search of prey. Cartoonist Thomas Nast took the two examples of the Herald enterprise and put them together in a cartoon for Harper's Weekly. He showed an ass (symbolizing the Herald) wearing a lion's skin (the scary prospect of Caesarism) frightening away the animals in the forest (Central Park). The caption quoted a familiar fable: "An ass having put on a lion's skin roamed about in the forest and amused himself by frightening all the foolish animals he met within his wanderings." One of the foolish animals in the cartoon was an elephant, representing the Republican vote - not the party, the Republican vote - which was being frightened away from its normal ties by the phony scare of Caesarism. In a subsequent cartoon on November 21, 1874, after the election in which the Republicans did badly, Nast followed up the idea by showing the elephant in a trap, illustrating the way the Republican vote had been decoyed from its normal allegiance. Other cartoonists picked up the symbol, and the elephant soon ceased to be the vote and became the party itself: the jackass, now referred to as the donkey, made a natural transition from representing the Herald to representing the Democratic party that had frightened the elephant. --From William Safire's New Language of Politics, Revised edition, Collier Books, New York, 1972 Source: www.gop.com

Answer 3

It's origin as symbols for the parties is attributed to a political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, who used the donkey and the elephant in Cartoons drawn for Harper's Weekly in the 1870's.

Answer 4

Because the elephant never forgets. :)
Thomas Nast created a cartoon in 1874 depicting the Republican "vote" as being a foolish elephant being scared by a donkey wrapped in a lion's skin. Over time these

symbols became the identifiers for the two main parties. The elephant for Republicans and the donkey for the Democrats.

Answer 5

Thomas Nast created a cartoon in 1874 depicting the Republican "vote" as being a foolish elephant being scared by a donkey wrapped in a lion's skin. Over time these

symbols became the identifiers for the two main parties. The elephant for Republicans and the donkey for the Democrats.

Answer 6

In about 1874, a famous political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, created a cartoon for the New Yorker magazine in which he used the elephant as a symbol for Republicans. As a cartoonist, Nast mocked politicians (from both parties) for what he believed were their foolish actions; in this case, the elephant represented being calm when nobody was disturbing him, but also capable of stampeding and causing damage if he was excited. Nast was offering his viewpoint about political decisions the Republican Party was making at that time. The elephant symbol later became associated with positive qualities (strength, loyalty) but its origins were to imply erratic behavior.

Answer 7

The Republican party.

Answer 8

The Republican Party.