Thomas Nast was born in Landau, Germany, on September 26, 1840. His father Thomas, a trombonist in a regimental band, held liberal political sentiments. The elder Nast found Germany's political climate uncomfortable. In 1846 he sent his wife, Appolinia Abriss, and their small son and daughter to New York City, and he joined them in 1849 when his enlistment was up. The younger Nast studied art with Theodore Kaufmann in 1854. By the summer of 1862 Nast's freelance work had evolved into a position with Harper's Weekly. In August he visited battlefields and sent reportorial sketches back to the magazine. For the next three years Harper's Weekly and the New York Times campaigned against him. Nast's cartoons were so effective in depicting Tweed as a sleazy criminal that legend has it that the Boss dispatched his minions with the command, "Stop them damn pictures. He left Harper's Weekly in late 1886. He freelanced for a variety of magazines and in September 1892 he established Nast's Weekly, which lasted less than six months. He tried unsuccessfully to return to his first ambition, historical painting. By 1902 he was desperate for work and accepted President Theodore Roosevelt's appointment to serve as consul general to Ecuador. After only six months abroad, he died there of yellow fever on December 7, 1902.