The Union Christmas

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Thomas Nast Christmas Collection

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Thomas Nast's Original "The Union Christmas" Civil War Print

This is probably the most touching and moving Abraham Lincoln print to come out of the Civil War era. The leaf was printed on December 31, 1864, and Thomas Nast was the artist. The print shows Mr. Lincoln standing at the door, inviting the Southern Rebels to come in from the cold and snow, and rejoin the union.

Thomas Nast "The Union Christmas"  (Click on Image for Enlarged View)

A large banquet table has been prepared, and the table has empty chares labeled Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and so forth. The print has a large banner that reads, "The Union Christmas Dinner, Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men." The print has four insets, one showing Robert E. Lee offering his surrender to Grant (something that did happen a few months later. The second inset is captioned, "Lay Down your Arms and You Will be Welcome", which shows Rebel Soldiers being welcomed back into the Union. The third inset presents the Rebels as the prodigal son returning home, and the forth inset shows a soldier bowing down to accept a pardon from Lady Liberty.

For all the pain and all the loss of the Civil War, we see by the end of 1864, there were signs of hope.  Nast creates this image of hope by showing a country tired of war, and willing to invite their former countrymen to once again sit at the table of fellowship and Union.  Within three months of this image being made, Mr. Lincoln was dead, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.  However, Nast's vision of a country once again united did come to pass.

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.  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.