Thomas Nast His body was returned to the United States, where he was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. Nast's depictions of iconic characters, such as Santa Claus and Uncle Sam, are widely credited as forming the basis of popular depictions used today. Additional contributions by Nast include: In December 2011, a proposal to include Nast in the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2012 caused controversy. "The Wall Street Journal" reported that because of his stereotypical cartoons of the Irish, a number of objections were raised about Nast's work. For example, "The Usual Irish Way of
Thomas Nast city of many millions of dollars by grossly inflating expenses paid to contractors connected to the Ring. Nast, whose cartoons attacking Tammany corruption had appeared occasionally since 1867, intensified his focus on the four principal players in 1870 and especially in 1871. Tweed so feared Nast's campaign that he sent an emissary to offer the artist a bribe of $100,000, which was represented as a gift from a group of wealthy benefactors to enable Nast to study art in Europe. Feigning interest, Nast negotiated for more before finally refusing an offer of $500,000 with the words, "Well, I don't think