"Satan, Don't Get Thee Behind Me!"–Anything to Get Possession (from "Harper's Weekly," vol. 16, p. 641)

Thomas Nast

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Widely considered to be one of the most important American satirists of the nineteenth century, Thomas Nast was the leading cartoonist at Harper’s Weekly from 1859 through 1886. An outspoken defender of principled politicians, Nast targeted leaders whom he deemed unethical through his biting illustrations. These works harnessed popular references that could be easily understood by a partially illiterate audience. Invoking the biblical saying, "Satan, Don’t Get Thee Behind Me," Nast illustrates Democratic candidate Horace Greeley on his knees begging the devil to assist him in defeating General Ulysses S. Grant in the 1872 presidential election. A staunch opponent of corruption in politics, Nast targeted Greeley because he was embroiled in a number of public scandals, including posting bail for the incarcerated former Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art