Uncle Sam
is a symbolic character who is commonly employed in
cartoons as the personification of the United States. He is
depicted as a tall, slender figure with long white hair and
beard who is usually dressed in a swallow-tailed coat
decorated with stars, a pair of striped trousers, and a top
hat with stars and stripes on it. The name was first used in
conjunction with the United States in a derogatory sense, by
those opposing the War of 1812. Later in the 19th century
cartoonists created figures called Uncle Sam and his nephew
Brother Jonathan, a rural Yankee wit dating from the 18th
century, and for a time the two were used interchangeably as symbols for the country. It was cartoonist
Thomas Nast who, in the 1870s, drew the figure commonly
associated with Uncle Sam today. The most familiar depictions
of Uncle Sam, however, are those appearing on the recruiting
posters that were used during World Wars I and II. These were
drawn by James Montgomery Flagg, who served as his own model.
Although the precise origins of the name are uncertain, in
1961 Congress recognized Uncle Sam as the namesake of Samuel
Wilson (1766-1854), a Troy, N.Y., inspector of army supplies
during the War of 1812.
