Santa Claus American cartoonist of the 19th century. In 1863, a picture of Santa illustrated by Nast appeared in "Harper's Weekly". Thomas Nast immortalized Santa Claus with an illustration for the 3 January 1863 issue of "Harper's Weekly". Santa was dressed in an American flag, and had a puppet with the name "Jeff" written on it, reflecting its Civil War context. The story that Santa Claus lives at the North Pole may also have been a Nast creation. His Christmas image in the "Harper's" issue dated 29 December 1866 was a collage of engravings titled "Santa Claus and His Works", which included
Thomas Nast publisher of "Wilkes' Spirit of the Times". A few months later, as artist for "The Illustrated London News", he joined Garibaldi in Italy. Nast's cartoons and articles about the Garibaldi military campaign to unify Italy captured the popular imagination in the U.S. In February 1861, he arrived back in New York. In September of that year, he married Sarah Edwards, whom he had met two years earlier. He left the "New York Illustrated News" to work again, briefly, for "Frank Leslie's Illustrated News". In 1862, he became a staff illustrator for "Harper's Weekly". In his first years with "Harper's", Nast