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Sam Wilson
- Uncle Sam is known to everyone as a mythical character symbolizing the United States, but was he based on a real person? Most people would be surprised to learn that Uncle Sam was indeed based on a New York State businessman, Sam Wilson. His nickname, Uncle Sam, became associated with the U.S. government in a joking manner during the War of 1812.
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- Origins of 'I Want You for U.S. Army' Illustration
Uncle Sam is a common nickname for the United States or the country's federal government. According to legend, the name is linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812.
The most popular theory concerns Samuel Wilson, a New York meatpacker who provided food to U.S. forces during the War of 1812. As the story goes, Wilson and Elbert Anderson, the contractor he supplied, stamped all their beef and pork barrels with the initials “E.A.-U.S.” The “U.S.” was shorthand for United States, but workers began joking that it stood for “Uncle Sam,” as Wilson was locally known. Before long, soldiers had helped bring the term into common use as a nickname for the United States.
The Sam Wilson story was first popularized in an 1830 article in the New York Gazette. It was later made a matter of public record in 1961, when Congress passed a resolution acknowledging Wilson as the “progenitor of America’s national symbol of "Uncle Sam.’” Nevertheless, many modern researchers doubt the tale’s veracity. Historian Donald R. Hickey has uncovered a reference to Uncle Sam in a U.S. Navy midshipman’s diary from 1810, which suggests that the term predated the War of 1812.
Whatever its origins, the nickname “Uncle Sam” became entrenched in the American vernacular in the years after the War of 1812. The first drawings of Uncle Sam followed in the 1830s, but his trademark look wasn’t popularized until the 1870s, when Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast began drawing him with a whiskered face, top hat and red-and-white striped pants.
The final step in the character’s transition into a national icon came courtesy of artist James Montgomery Flagg. In 1916, he used his own face as a model for an Uncle Sam cartoon in a periodical called Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly Newspaper. The image, which shows a goateed Uncle Sam pointing straight at the viewer, later appeared in a now-famous World War I recruitment poster featuring the tagline “I Want You For U.S. Army.”
Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as United States) is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States or the country in general. Since the early 19th century, Uncle Sam has been a popular symbol of the U.S. government in American culture and a manifestation of patriotic emotion. [3]
Oct 19, 2023 · to secure as solid. representation of something, by drawing or in words. insulting or mean. debate or argument. to look like. something used to represent something else. personification, or symbol, of the United States. Uncle Sam is a cartoon symbol for the United States, the U.S. government, or the American people.
- Esther Bergdahl
- HE FIRST APPEARED IN AN EDITORIAL CARTOON CRITICAL OF THE UNITED STATES. Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain. On March 13, 1852, the New York Lantern published an editorial cartoon titled “Raising the Wind; or, Both Sides of the Story,” criticizing United States policies on shipping.
- THE NAME MIGHT GO BACK TO A MEAT PACKER. According to many sources, linking the young United States to the name “Uncle Sam” dates back to the War of 1812 (though some historians differ on the details).
- HE WASN’T THE FIRST FIGURE TO REPRESENT THE NEW COUNTRY. "Brother Jonathan" welcoming other countries to U.S. Centennial circa 1876, LOC via Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain.
- AT ONE POINT, AMERICA WAS A WOMAN. Spirit of the Frontier, John Gast, 1872, Wikimedia Commons // Public Domain. Before Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan, it was Columbia who embodied the young nation.
Jul 1, 2014 · Uncle Sam was supposedly based on a real person, Sam Wilson, a businessman during the War of 1812. Though the image of Uncle Sam was made popular by Thomas Nast and the cartoonists of Puck Magazine , the portrait of Uncle Sam created by James Montgomery Flagg for the July 6, 1916, issue of Leslie’s Weekly soon led to Uncle Sam’s iconic status.
Sep 13, 2013 · There are several theories about where he comes from, but the most cited origin story traces Uncle Sam back to a man in Troy, New York. Sam Wilson delivered meat packed in barrels to soldiers during the War of 1812. Wilson was a well-liked and trustworthy man in Troy, and local residents called him "Uncle Sam."
