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Return of Ulysses

Return of Ulysses
Artist
Thomas Nast, 27 Sep 1840 - 7 Dec 1902
Sitter
Ulysses Simpson Grant, 27 Apr 1822 - 23 Jul 1885
Date
1879
Type
Print
Medium
Wood engraving on paper
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 55.9 × 40.4 cm (22 × 15 7/8")
Topic
Printed Material\Document\Scroll
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Mustache
Equipment\Shield
Personal Attribute\Facial Hair\Beard
Imaginary
Vehicle\Boat
Newspaper
Allegorical
Cartoon\Political
Symbols & Motifs\Symbolic Figure
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Male
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Natural Resource Occupations\Agriculturist\Farmer
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Politics and Government\Cabinet member\Secretary of War
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Politics and Government\President of US
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Congressional Gold Medal
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.87.88
Exhibition Label
Ulysses S. Grant was fifty-five when he left the White House. With no concrete plans for the future, he decided to take a sojourn around the world with his wife, Julia, and young son, Jesse. They would be back in two years, but not before they had visited England and Japan and heard welcoming applause from nearly every country of interest and culture in between. Home again in the fall of 1879, the Grants were celebrated with tokens of esteem, as shown by Thomas Nast in this Harper’s Weekly cartoon of October 11, 1879. Nast based his wood engraving on a line from Homer’s Odyssey: “The Goddess (Minerva) dispersed the mist, and earth appeared; and much-enduring, modest Ulysses was then glad, rejoicing in his own land.”
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view