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"The Tammany Tiger Loose--'What are you going to do about it?'"

The Tammany Tiger Loose--`What are you going to do about it?` Engraving
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Engraving of political cartoon drawn by Thomas Nast

Dimensions of engraving and caption: 36 cm x 51.8 cm; dimensions of double page spread: 40.7 cm x 56.1 cm

From Harper's Weekly, 11 November 1871, pages 1056-1057.


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[ This description is from the project: Who Counts? A Look at Voter Rights through Political Cartoons ]

Often described as the most vivid of Thomas Nast’s cartoons is the image of Boss Tweed, as a Roman emperor, looking down on an arena where the Tammany Tiger stands over the symbolic images of republican government, justice, and commerce—all defeated and destroyed by the power of the Tammany political machine.

The tiger was originally the symbol of a fire company affiliated with the Tammany Society, a patriotic and social organization that evolved into the political machine of the Democratic Party in New York City. Nast made the tiger the symbol of unchecked political power.