The Donkey and the Elephant (1870)

It’s January 19h. This day in 1870, a political cartoon by Thomas Mast depicts a donkey to represent southern Democrats. Around this same time, Nast also starts to use the elephant for Republicans.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie discuss the very convoluted origins of the very strange mascots — and whether the donkey-elephant divide even works anymore.

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Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia