Symbols

Political Symbols in American History: Donkeys, Elephants, Roosters, and Eagles

By The editors of the Democratic Republican PartyPublished How we check facts

The short answer

American party symbols were not designed in a single decision: they accumulated from engravings, cartoons, ballots printed for voters who could not read, and later party branding. The donkey and the elephant were popularized by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly in 1870 and 1874, while state ballots used other devices, such as the Democratic rooster and the Republican eagle. The Democratic-Republican Party of the 1790s to 1820s has no documented official emblem.

Historical setting

Political symbols look permanent, but every one of them was made by someone, for someone, at a particular time. This section of the site studies those choices with the same standard used in our history chapters: every image comes from a public collection with its rights recorded, every date and quotation has a source you can open, and familiar stories that cannot be confirmed are labeled as unconfirmed rather than repeated.

The short version of the American story runs like this. In the 1790s and early 1800s, partisans used the nation's shared imagery, eagles, stars, the figure of Liberty, and the liberty cap, together with their candidates' portraits. A linen banner from the election of 1800, now at the Smithsonian, celebrates Thomas Jefferson's victory with an eagle and a portrait, not with a party emblem si.edu. In the 1830s and 1840s, satirical lithographs began to draw asses and fighting roosters around Democratic politicians loc.gov. After the Civil War, Thomas Nast's cartoons in Harper's Weekly made the donkey and the elephant familiar national shorthand hdl.handle.net. Late in the nineteenth century, states began printing official ballots, and some printed a party device at the top of each column so that every voter could find a party; in Indiana in 1908 those devices were a rooster for the Democrats and an eagle for the Republicans loc.gov. Party-owned logos and television color schemes came last.

Start here

The Donkey, the Elephant, and the Long Life of Political Symbols is our flagship paper: a source-checked visual history of American party identity told through seventeen public domain images, from a 1796 engraving of Liberty and the eagle to a 1912 cartoon of a donkey, an elephant, and a bull moose. It separates what the documents show from what later retellings added, including:

  • why no 1828 image of Andrew Jackson as a donkey has been found, and what his 1828 campaign images actually show;
  • what Thomas Nast's first donkey (January 15, 1870) and first Republican elephant (November 7, 1874) actually depict, and why the elephant first stood for "The Republican Vote," not the party;
  • why the popular story linking the elephant to a New York Herald zoo hoax cannot be right, given that the hoax was published two days after the cartoon's printed date;
  • how ballot emblems worked, including Alabama's Democratic rooster, adopted in 1904 with the words "White Supremacy" above it and changed only by a 39 to 32 committee vote in 1966;
  • how red and blue became fixed party colors only around the 2000 election.

What a Mascot Leaves Out turns from the history of symbols to the animals themselves. It compares the documented behavior of elephants, donkeys, and dolphins, including the uncomfortable parts, using the same evidentiary standard for each. A mascot is a choice about what to emphasize; that page shows what each choice leaves out.

Evidence

The symbols in this section are documented through four kinds of evidence, and each kind can prove different things.

Prints and cartoons show how artists and publishers pictured parties for paying readers. A cartoon proves that a symbol was in circulation and understood; it does not prove that a party adopted it. Nast's donkey of 1870 is labeled "Copperhead Press," not "Democratic Party," for example hdl.handle.net.

Campaign objects, such as banners, tickets, and portraits, show how supporters presented their own side. The 1800 Jefferson banner and an 1828 Ohio Jackson ticket with a broom are examples si.eduloc.gov.

Ballots and election law show the symbols that a state recorded as a party's official device. Ohio's General Code, as quoted by the state's Attorney General in 1926, let a party convention choose "the figure of a star, an eagle, a rooster, a flower, a plow or some other appropriate symbol," and barred the national flag and the state and national seals ohioattorneygeneral.gov.

Party publications and logos show how parties later described their own symbols. The Republican National Committee's 1956 history called the elephant "the party symbol" and credited Nast hdl.handle.net. Statements like that are evidence of how a party told its story at the time of writing, not independent evidence of earlier events.

What the evidence does not show

The evidence does not show an official emblem for the Democratic-Republican Party of the 1790s to 1820s. None was found, and the party had no national body that could have adopted one. Images presented today as that party's logo are modern designs.

It does not show that either modern party formally voted to adopt its animal in the nineteenth century. Both animals entered through cartoons and were embraced by the parties gradually.

It does not show anything about voters' character. A party's animal is a record of choices made by artists, editors, and party officials, not evidence about the people who vote for that party.

The project's own dolphin mark is a modern design, introduced for this site.

Sources

  1. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, "Jefferson Banner," 1800, ID PL.227739.1800.C01. si.edu (locator: object description). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  2. Henry R. Robinson, "The modern balaam and his ass," New York, 1837, Library of Congress. loc.gov (locator: catalog record); and Abel & Durang, "Cock of the walk," Philadelphia, 1848, Library of Congress. loc.gov (locator: catalog summary). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  3. Albert Bigelow Paine, Th. Nast, His Period and His Pictures (New York and London: Harper & Brothers, 1904), HathiTrust Digital Library. hdl.handle.net (locator: pp. 146 to 147 and 299 to 300). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  4. "How to Vote," The Jasper Weekly Courier (Jasper, Indiana), October 30, 1908, p. 8, Chronicling America, Library of Congress. loc.gov (locator: page 8, center column). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  5. "[Cut of broom] To sweep the Augean Stable. For President Andrew Jackson for Vice-President John C. Calhoun," Ohio election ticket, 1828, Printed Ephemera Collection, Library of Congress. loc.gov (locator: catalog title). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  6. Ohio Attorney General, Opinion No. 3633, September 20, 1926, Opinions of the Attorney General of Ohio for 1926, pp. 372 to 373. ohioattorneygeneral.gov (locator: quotation of General Code Section 5014). Accessed 2026-10-28.
  7. Republican National Committee, The History of the Republican Party, 1854 to 1956 (Washington, 1956), HathiTrust Digital Library. hdl.handle.net (locator: p. 17 caption; p. 46). Accessed 2026-10-28.

Last checked against its sources on October 28, 2026. Report a correction.