Thomas Nast's Original "Civil
War Christmas" Print
This original 1863 Thomas
Nast print shows a touching scene of Husband and Wife on Christmas Eve
1862. The picture is from the January 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly. This leaf is a stunning illustration and is over 140 years old!
The image shows a family
split apart by the Civil War. The left image shows a scene of a woman, late
at night on Christmas Eve, on her knees in earnest prayer.
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Thomas Nast "Civil War Christmas"
(Click on Image for Enlarged View) |
She is at the window
looking up at the night sky, obviously distressed about the absence of her
husband. In the background can seen a small bed with her two children
in it. On the wall, a picture of the woman's husband can be seen hanging.
On the inset image on the right, the woman's husband can be seen sitting
with his rifle around a lonely campfire. In his hand is a small album with
photographs of his wife and children. He is obviously lonesome, missing his
wife and kids on a cold winter night.
Surrounding these two main images are a variety of scenes. In the
upper left corner, an image of Santa Claus can be seen. Santa is
crawling into a chimney. In the lower left is an image of soldiers
marching in the snow. The upper right corner has another image of
Santa, in a sleigh, being pulled by reindeer. This is one of the
earliest images of this popular traditions of Christmas. The lower
right corner shows ships being tossed in the sea. The lower center
shows an image of the graves of soldiers lost in the war. This is a dramatic
and moving Nast picture. |
We hope you enjoy this complete Gallery of
the Civil War works of Thomas Nast. We have created this digital
archive for the use of researchers and students of Thomas Nast. Please
remember that the digitally enhanced images are Copyright ©
Son of the South Material, so do not use them without asking permission. For more
information, contact
paul@sonofthesouth.net .
A Note to our Readers
We created this
Thomas Nast Gallery to digitally preserve Nast's Civil War work for
posterity. We are now making the original, 140 year old leafs
available for a price of $250 each. The proceeds from the sale of the
material will enable us to continue to expand the material featured on our
site. Please contact
paul@sonofthesouth.net
if you are interested in acquiring one of these original leafs. |