Origins: The elephant became associated with the Republican Party also thanks to Thomas Nast. In the same 1874 cartoon mentioned above, Nast depicted an elephant labeled "The Republican Vote ...

German-born political cartoonist Thomas Nast gave America some of its most enduring symbols: the Republican elephant, the Democratic donkey, and Uncle Sam. Publishing regularly in Harper's Weekly ...

in an 1874 cartoon called "Third Term Panic," which warned about President Ulysses Grant's flirtation with a third term in office. The first recorded Republican use of Grand Old Party was in 1874 ...