Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 4).djvu/520

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NASSAU-SIEGEN
NAST

many learned societies, and at one time edited the “New England Historical and Genealogical Register.” He published “Songs for the School-Room” (Boston, 1842); “Chrestomathie Française” (1849); “Memoir of Rev. Nathaniel Howe” (1851); “Thou Shalt Not Steal” (1852); “Strength and Beauty of the Sanctuary” (1854); “Congregational Hymn Book” (1857); “Congregational Hymn and Tune Book” (1858); “Our Obligations to Defend our Country, and Sermons on the War” (1861); “Songs for Social and Public Worship” (1862); “Eulogy on Edward Everett” (1865); “Fountains of Salvation” (1865); “Eulogy on Abraham Lincoln” (1865); “Life of Sir Charles Henry Frankland” (1865); “Gazetteer of Massachusetts” (1872); “Life of Henry Wilson” (1872); “Lives of Moody and Sankey” (1872); and a “History of Middlesex County” (1872). He also left in manuscript a “History of Hopkinton” and a “History of the Nason Family.” — His cousin, Henry Bradford, chemist, b. in Foxborough, Mass., 22 June, 1831; d. in Troy, N. Y., 18 Jan., 1895, was graduated at Amherst in 1855, and then studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen, Germany, where in 1857 he received the degree of Ph. D. for his original investigations on the formation of ethers. On his return to the United States in 1858 he was appointed professor of natural history at the Rensselaer polytechnic institute in Troy, and in the same year he became professor of chemistry and natural sciences in Beloit college, holding both of these appointments until 1866. He then accepted the chair of chemistry and natural science in the Polytechnic institute, which he afterward held. He was appointed juror by the U. S. government at the World's fair in Paris in 1878, and was assigned the department of mineralogy and metallurgy. In 1880 he was called to the place of chemist of the Standard oil company, and afterward devoted much attention to the abatement of nuisances arising from smoke, odors, and other products of refineries, and also to the improvement of methods for treatment of crude oil. Prof. Nason received the degree of M. D. from Union in 1880, and that of LL. D. from Beloit in the same year, and in 1887 was appointed director of Pratt institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. He was a member of the chemical societies of Berlin and New York, and in 1878 he was made a fellow of the London chemical society. His publications include “Table of Reactions for Qualitative Analysis” (Troy, 1865); a translation of Wöhler's “Handbook of Mineral Analysis” (Philadelphia, 1868); “Table for Qualitative Analysis in Colors” (Troy, 1870); an edition of Elderhorst's “Blow-pipe Analysis” (Philadelphia, 1873; revised ed., 1880); and “Biographical Record of Officers and Graduates of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute” (1887).


NASSAU-SIEGEN, John Maurice, Prince of (nas-sow-zee'-gen), Dutch soldier, b. in Delft, Holland, in 1604; d. in Cleves, Germany, 29 Dec., 1679. From early youth he showed military talent and participated in the war against the Spaniards, especially in the siege of Breda in 1625. In 1636 he was appointed by the stadtholder, Henry of Orange, governor-general of the Dutch possessions in Brazil, and immediately after his arrival he began a campaign against the Spanish-Portuguese forces, which he defeated in repeated encounters. Believing himself strong enough to hold his own he despatched part of his forces to attack the Portuguese possessions on the coast of Africa, and continued to extend his conquests with the aid of the natives who were opposed to Spanish rule. But he received a serious check in the attack on São Salvador, being obliged to raise the siege with the loss of many of his best officers. On receiving re-enforcements in 1638, and with the co-operation of the Dutch fleet, which defeated the Spanish-Portuguese squadrons in sight of Bahia a Todos os Santos, he captured the latter city. When in 1640 Portugal recovered its independence from Spain under the Duke of Braganza, the Prince of Nassau-Siegen, anticipating an alliance with the latter, and believing that a treaty of peace with Portugal would leave Holland in possession of the conquered territory, hastened his operations, and, to give occupation to the host of adventurers that had assembled under his colors, he despatched an expedition against the Spanish possessions on Plate river and Chili, meanwhile visiting the conquered provinces and arranging their administration. In 1643 he was recalled and returned with great riches to Holland, where he was made general-in-chief of cavalry and governor of the fortress of Wesel. The Elector of Brandenburg made him afterward grand master of the Teutonic order and governor of Cleves, where he established magnificent gardens. In the Paris library there are two folio volumes containing a fine collection of colored prints of Brazilian animals and plants, which were executed by order of the prince, and accompanied with a short explanation by him. Gaspar van Baerle describes the prince's government in America in his “Rerum in Brazilia gestarum Historia” (Amsterdam, 1647).


NAST, Thomas, caricaturist, b. in Landau, Bavaria, 27 Sept., 1840. He was brought to the United States by his father in 1846. When a boy of fourteen he spent about six months in the drawing classes of Theodore Kaufmann, and then, with no other preparatory art-instruction, was engaged as a draughtsman on an illustrated paper. In 1860 he went to England as special artist of a New York weekly paper, and thence he went to Italy, where he followed Garibaldi, making sketches for the “New York Illustrated News,” the “London Illustrated News,” and “Le Monde illustré” of Paris. He returned to New York in 1861, and in July, 1862, began drawing war sketches for “Harper's Weekly.” His very first political caricature, an allegorical design that gave a powerful blow to the peace party, was a success; it brought him at once into public notice, and he immediately became popular. Besides his work for “Harper's Weekly,” by which he is best known, he has drawn for other comic papers, has illustrated several books, notably those of “Petroleum V. Nasby,” and for several years after 1872 he issued “Nast's Illustrated Almanac.” In 1866 he executed a series of sixty caricatures of well-known men in water-colors for “Bal d'opera,” and in 1873 he lectured in the principal cities of the United States, drawing caricatures on the stage, by way of illustration, in black and white, and also with colored crayons. He appeared again on the lecture platform in 1885, executing landscapes in oil and other sketches with extreme rapidity, and a