Jump to content

Uncle Sam

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 70.124.25.35 (talk) at 14:26, 17 February 2007 (→Other media). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

This article is about the national personification. For other uses, see Uncle Sam (disambiguation).
J. M. Flagg's 1917 , based on the original British Lord Kitchener poster of three years earlier, was used to recruit soldiers for both World War I and World War II. Flagg used a modified version of his own face for Uncle Sam, and veteran Walter Botts provided the pose.[1]

Uncle Sam is a national personification of the United States, with the first usage of the term dating from the War of 1812 and the first illustration dating from 1852. He is often depicted as a serious elderly man with white hair and a goatee, dressed in clothing that recalls the design elements of the flag of the United States—for example, a top hat with red and white stripes and white stars on a blue band, and red and white pants.

Origin of the Name

Common folklore holds origins trace back to soldiers stationed in upstate New York, who would receive barrels of meat stamped with the initials U.S. The soldiers jokingly referred to it as the initials of the troops' meat supplier, Samuel Wilson of Troy, New York. The 87th United States Congress adopted the following resolution on September 15, 1961: "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." A monument marks his birthplace in Arlington, Massachusetts, and a monument marks his burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, New York.

Another theory suggests that Uncle Sam was a creation by Irish immigrants to the U.S. who used the Gaelic acronym, SAM, or Stáit Aontaithe Mheiriceá, which is the translation for United States of America, as a nickname for their new host country. Unfortunately, however, the precise origin of the term may never be proven.

Earlier representative figures of the United States included such beings as "Brother Jonathan," used by Punch magazine. These were overtaken by Uncle Sam somewhere around the time of the Civil War. The female personification "Columbia" has seldom been seen since the 1920s.

Uncle Sam Imagery

Thomas Nast played an important role in creating the popular image of Uncle Sam in his post-Civil War era editorial cartoons. After the American Civil War, whiskers were added to Uncle Sam in reference to Abraham Lincoln. Today, with the possible exception of the Statue of Liberty, the character of Uncle Sam is probably the most easily recognizable personification of the U.S.

World War I poster

During World War I, a very famous poster inspired by a British recruitment poster depicted Uncle Sam pointing at the people with the words I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY. The artist James Montgomery Flagg, who painted the poster in 1917, used a modified version of his own face for Uncle Sam.[2] Veteran Walter Botts posed for the drawing that became Uncle Sam. The poster was based on a 1914 recruitment poster from Britain featuring Lord Kitchener, which was designed by Alfred Leete.

The poster has been repeatedly imitated (and parodied), with many different variations on the simple slogan.

Other media

File:NY Yankees Logo.png
The logo of the New York Yankees features Uncle Sam's hat covering the barrel of a red baseball bat.

In addition to the appearance of Uncle Sam in politics, the character has also appeared as a comic book hero for both Quality and DC Comics. He is presented as the living embodiment of the United States and is the leader of the Freedom Fighters. See Uncle Sam (comics). There was also a short cartoon in the 1980s called "Uncle Sam's Adventures."

Furthermore, Uncle Sam appeared as a horror villain in the eponymously titled 1997 film, Uncle Sam. In this film, a veteran who died during Desert Storm rises from the dead to exact justice upon some teenagers who burned the American Flag on his grave.

In music, the long-lived folk-rock group Grateful Dead featured a skeletal Uncle Sam as one of the band's symbols. Uncle Sam, referred to in their song United States Blues, is one of the many elements that compose the band's "American mythology".

In the Superkids comic Making of America, Chuck the mouse wears an Uncle Sam costume. In the comic, George Washington shows the costume to Betsy Ross and that gives her the idea of the design of the American flag. In the World War II issue Chuck sees a Uncle Sam poster and says "That looks farmiliar" remembering the American Revolution issue.

See also

Bibliography

  • Fenster, Bob (2003), They Did What!?, Andrews McMeel Publishing. (ISBN 0-7407-3793-7)

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ [2]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Uncle_Sam&oldid=108841087"