Free Vintage Clip Art - Vintage Uncle Sam

Vintage Uncle Sam

This poster is from 1917 encouraging citizens to grow more of their own food to help the war effort of WWI

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When I came across this poster of Uncle Sam, I thought to myself that I can't remember seeing him depicted in this way.  We are used to seeing Uncle Sam like this

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And it got me to thinking about the origins of Uncle Sam.  Here is what I discovered:

Uncle Sam was conceived during the War of 1812 and was depicted as an elderly man with white hair and a goatee dressed in elements of the US Flag.  The female version of Uncle Sam, known as Columbia, has seldom been seen since the 1920's.

The recruitment poster shown above was created by James Montgomery Flagg (how appropriate!) and released on July 6, 1916.  More than four million copies of this poster were printed between 1917 and 1918 and was used extensively during WWII.

Uncle Sam was actually born out of a real person named Samuel Wilson, who was a wealthy middle aged meat packer who had obtained a contract with the US government to supply the troops in the north with meat during the War of 1812.  The meat was shipped in barrels which were owned by the US government and marked "U.S.".  The Teamsters who moved the barrels used to joke about the initials and referred to them as "Uncle Sam".

The US Congress passed a resolution on September 15, 1961 which said:

Resolved by the Senate and the House of Representatives that the Congress salutes Uncle Sam Wilson of Troy, New York, as the progenitor of America's National symbol of Uncle Sam.

Happy Birthday America!

Enjoy!