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Elephant Cufflinks
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Elephant Cufflinks

SKU T04524

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The Republican Party was formed in 1854 and six years later Abraham Lincoln became its first member elected to the White House. An image of an elephant was featured as a Republican symbol in at least one political cartoon and a newspaper illustration during the Civil War, when “seeing the elephant” was an expression used by soldiers to mean experiencing combat. The pachyderm didn’t really start to take hold as a GOP symbol, however, until Thomas Nast, who’s considered the father of the modern political cartoon, used it in an 1874 Harper’s Weekly cartoon. Titled “The Third-Term Panic,” Nast’s drawing mocked the New York Herald, which had been critical of President Ulysses Grant’s rumored bid for a third term, and portrayed various interest groups as animals, including an elephant labeled “the Republican vote,” which was shown standing at the edge of a pit. Nast employed the elephant to represent Republicans in additional cartoons during the 1870s, and by 1880 other cartoonists were using the creature to symbolize the party.

Our Elephant Cufflinks are enamel on silvertone plate and they measure approximately 7/8" W x 1/2" L. They come packaged in a velveteen lined gift box.

Your purchase helps support the educational and exhibit programs of the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library & Museum
    Your Price $17.95