Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as ''

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

'') is a common

national personification A national personification is an anthropomorphic personification of a state or the people(s) it inhabits. It may appear in political cartoons and propaganda. Some early personifications in the Western world tended to be national manifestation ...

of the

federal government of the United States The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fede ...

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. Uncle Sam has also developed notoriety for his appearance in military

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...

, popularized by a famous 1917

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

recruiting poster by J.M. Flagg. According to legend, the character came into use during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States of America and its indigenous allies against the United Kingdom and its allies in British North America, with limited participation by Spain in Florida. It be ...

and may have been named for

Samuel Wilson Samuel Wilson (September 13, 1766 – July 31, 1854) was an American meat packer who lived in Troy, New York, whose name is purportedly the source of the personification of the United States known as "Uncle Sam". Biography Wilson was born in the ...

. The actual origin is obscure. The first reference to Uncle Sam in formal literature (as distinct from newspapers) was in the 1816 allegorical book '' The Adventures of Uncle Sam, in Search After His Lost Honor'' by Frederick Augustus Fidfaddy, Esq.pp. 40–41 of Albert Matthews, "Uncle Sam". ''Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society'', v.19, 1908. pp. 21–65
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While the figure of Uncle Sam specifically represents the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

, the female figure of

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

represents the United States as a nation. An archaic character,

Brother Jonathan Brother Jonathan is the personification of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the U.S. in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpens ...

, was known to represent the American populace.

Earlier personifications

The earliest known personification of the United States was as a woman named

, who first appeared in 1738 ( pre-US) and sometimes was associated with another female personification, Lady Liberty. With the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

of 1775 came

, a male personification. Uncle Sam finally appeared after the

appeared with either

or Uncle Sam, but her use declined as a national person in favor of Liberty, and she was effectively abandoned once she became the mascot of

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

in the 1920s. A March 24, 1810, journal entry by Isaac Mayo (a midshipman in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

) states:

weighed anchor stood down the harbor, passed
Sandy Hook Sandy Hook is a barrier spit in Middletown Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The barrier spit, approximately in length and varying from wide, is located at the north end of the Jersey Shore. It encloses the southern ...
, where there are two light-houses, and put to sea, first and the second day out most deadly seasick, oh could I have got onshore in the hight 'sic''of it, I swear that uncle Sam, as they call him, would certainly forever have lost the services of at least one sailor.

Evolution

Uncle Sam Memorial Statue, Arlington, MA - Samuel Wilson

Uncle Sam's Thanksgiving Dinner (November 1869), by Thomas Nast

An 1810 edition of ''

Niles' Weekly Register The ''Weekly Register'' (also called the ''Niles Weekly Register'' and ''Niles' Register'') was a national magazine published in Baltimore, Maryland by Hezekiah Niles from 1811 to 1848. The most widely circulated magazine of its time, the ''Regis ...

'' has a footnote defining Uncle Sam as "a cant term in the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

for the

." Presumably, it came from the abbreviation of the United States: U.S.

Samuel Wilson legend

The precise origin of the Uncle Sam character is unclear, but a popular legend is that the name "Uncle Sam" was derived from

, a

meatpacker The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally ...

from

Troy, New York Troy is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County, New York, Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Huds ...

, who supplied rations for American soldiers during the War of 1812. There was a requirement at the time for contractors to stamp their name and where the rations came from onto the food they were sending. Wilson's packages were labeled "E.A.—U.S." When someone asked what that stood for, a co-worker jokingly said, "Elbert Anderson he contractorand Uncle Sam," referring to Wilson, though the ''U.S.'' actually stood for "United States". Doubts have been raised as to the authenticity of this story, as the claim did not appear in print until 1842. Additionally, the earliest known mention definitely referring to the metaphorical Uncle Sam is from 1810, predating Wilson's contract with the government.

Development of the character

In 1835,

made a reference to Uncle Sam, implying that they symbolized different things: Brother Jonathan was the country itself, while Uncle Sam was the government and its power. A clockmaker in an 1849 comedic novel explains "we call...the American public Uncle Sam, as you call the British John Bull." By the 1850s, the names

and Uncle Sam were being used nearly interchangeably, to the point that images of what had previously been called "Brother Jonathan" were being called "Uncle Sam". Similarly, the appearance of both personifications varied wildly. For example, one depiction of Uncle Sam in 1860 showed him looking like

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading int ...

, while a contemporaneous depiction of

looks more like the modern version of Uncle Sam, though without a goatee. An 1893 article in ''

The Lutheran Witness Concordia Publishing House (CPH), founded in 1869, is the official publishing arm of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). Headquartered in St Louis, Missouri, at 3558 S. Jefferson Avenue, CPH publishes the synod's official monthly magaz ...

'' claims Uncle Sam was simply another name for

When we meet him in politics we call him Uncle Sam; when we meet him in society we call him
Brother Jonathan Brother Jonathan is the personification of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the U.S. in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpens ...
. Here of late Uncle Sam ''alias''
Brother Jonathan Brother Jonathan is the personification of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the U.S. in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. His too-short pants, too-tight waistcoat and old-fashioned style reflect his taste for inexpens ...
has been doing a powerful lot of complaining, hardly doing anything else.

Uncle Sam did not get a standard appearance, even with the effective abandonment of Brother Jonathan near the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

, until the well-known recruitment image of Uncle Sam was first created by

James Montgomery Flagg James Montgomery Flagg (June 18, 1877 – May 27, 1960) was an American artist, comics artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters, particularly his 1 ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. The main belligerents included much of Europe and their colonial empires, the Russian Empire, the United States ...

. The image was inspired by a British recruitment

poster A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text ...

showing Lord Kitchener in a similar pose. It is this image more than any other that has influenced the modern appearance of Uncle Sam: an elderly white man with white hair and a goatee, wearing a white

top hat A top hat (also called a high hat, a cylinder hat, or, informally, a topper) is a tall, flat-crowned hat for men traditionally associated with formal wear in Western dress codes, meaning white tie, morning dress, or frock coat. Traditional ...

with white stars on a blue band, a blue tail coat, and red-and-white-striped trousers. Flagg's depiction of Uncle Sam was shown publicly for the first time, according to some, on the cover of the magazine '' Leslie's Weekly'' on July 6, 1916, with the caption "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?" More than four million copies of this image were printed between 1917 and 1918. Flagg's image was also used extensively during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, during which the US was codenamed "Samland" by the German intelligence agency

Abwehr The ''Abwehr'' ( German for ''resistance'' or ''defence'', but the word usually means ''counterintelligence'' in a military context; ) was the German military-intelligence service for the ''Reichswehr'' and the '' Wehrmacht'' from 1920 to 1944. ...

. The term was central in the song " The Yankee Doodle Boy", which was featured in 1942 in the musical ''

Yankee Doodle Dandy ''Yankee Doodle Dandy'' is a 1942 American biographical musical film about George M. Cohan, known as "The Man Who Owned Broadway". It stars James Cagney, Joan Leslie, Walter Huston, and Richard Whorf, and features Irene Manning, George To ...

''. There are two memorials to Uncle Sam, both of which commemorate the life of Samuel Wilson: the Uncle Sam Memorial Statue in Arlington, Massachusetts, his birthplace; and a memorial near his long-term residence in Riverfront Park,

. Wilson's boyhood home can still be visited in Mason, New Hampshire. Samuel Wilson died on July 31, 1854, aged 87, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Troy, New York. In 1976, Uncle Sam was depicted in " Our Nation's 200th Birthday, The Telephone's 100th Birthday" by

Stanley Meltzoff Stanley Meltzoff (March 27, 1917 - November 9, 2006) was an American painter most known for his marine paintings. Early life and career Born in New York City to father Nathan, a cantor at a Manhattan synagogue, Stanley Meltzoff graduated from t ...

for

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

. In 1989, "Uncle Sam Day" became official. A Congressional joint resolution designated September 13, 1989, as "Uncle Sam Day", the birthday of

. In 2015, the family history company

MyHeritage MyHeritage is an online genealogy platform with web, mobile, and software products and services, introduced by the Israeli company MyHeritage in 2003. Users of the platform can obtain their family trees, upload and browse through photos, and sea ...

researched Uncle Sam's family tree and claims to have tracked down his living relatives.

References

External links

* ttp://www.sonofthesouth.net/uncle-sam/uncle-sam-pictures.htm Historical Uncle Sam pictures*
What's the origin of Uncle Sam?
The Straight Dope
Uncle Sam online
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