Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, when Uncle Sam leans forward from the page,
Speaker 1: fixing his penetrating gaze upon you and pointing at your heart,
Speaker 1: there's nowhere to hide. He's a man with authority, white
Speaker 1: haired and dressed in an old fashioned suit and top hat,
Speaker 1: all in red, white and blue. He's got the full
Speaker 1: weight of the United States of America behind him. But
Speaker 1: who is this Uncle Sam guy? Where did he come from?
Speaker 1: The most famous image of Uncle Sam is from a
Speaker 1: poster created in nineteen seventeen. It had the painting described above,
Speaker 1: with the slogan I want you for the US Army
Speaker 1: enlist now. It's the work of artist James Montgomery Flagg,
Speaker 1: a painter and illustrator who was asked to create propaganda
Speaker 1: posters during World War One. Flag was inspired by a
Speaker 1: British army recruitment poster by Alfred Leet from nineteen four
Speaker 1: which featured the British Minister of War pointing at the
Speaker 1: audience with the slogan join your Country's army. Flagg used
Speaker 1: his own face as a model, adding wrinkles and a beard.
Speaker 1: The poster was printed more than four million times in
Speaker 1: the last year of the war, but Uncle Sam had
Speaker 1: a life long before that. The character was long thought
Speaker 1: to derive from one Uncle Sam Wilson, a Troy, New
Speaker 1: York meat packer who supplied barrels of beef to the
Speaker 1: army during the War of eighteen twelve. The barrels were
Speaker 1: stamped US indicating they were government property, and the soldiers
Speaker 1: called them Uncle Sam's. The New York Gazette popularized this
Speaker 1: story in nineteen thirty. The explanation had such credence that
Speaker 1: Congress passed a resolution in nineteen sixty one recognizing Sam
Speaker 1: Wilson as being the origin of the name. But historians
Speaker 1: find this tale to be flawed for several reasons. One
Speaker 1: is that in twenty thirteen, the USS Constitution Museum uncovered
Speaker 1: a diary entry from eighteen ten written by a slightly
Speaker 1: disgruntled sixteen year old sailor serving on the USS Wasp.
Speaker 1: The sailor wrote that he had been so seasick he
Speaker 1: would have gone ashore if you could. He wrote, I
Speaker 1: swear that Uncle Sam, as they call him, would certainly
Speaker 1: forever have lost the services of at least one sailor.
Speaker 1: This reference shows that Uncle Sam was already a cultural
Speaker 1: reference before the War of eighteen twelve. A few other
Speaker 1: references that show early uses of the term also tend
Speaker 1: to discredit the Sam Wilson origin story, though Wilson may
Speaker 1: have helped popularize an existing character. It turns out that
Speaker 1: the minister who led Sam Wilson's funeral once wrote a
Speaker 1: letter saying that he had spoken often with Wilson about
Speaker 1: the circumstances of his name getting attached to a larger idea.
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam's flashy appearance has evolved over time as cartoonists
Speaker 1: have envisioned and re envisioned him. Sam's antecedent was probably
Speaker 1: Brother Jonathan, a character who appeared in plays, stories, and
Speaker 1: verse personifying the United States in the late seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 1: In contrast with the character John Bull, who personified Great
Speaker 1: Britain around eighteen twelve, Brother Jonathan began appearing in cartoons.
Speaker 1: He was dressed as an American revolutionary with a long
Speaker 1: military jacket and tri cornered hat. Simultaneously, there was Columbia,
Speaker 1: a majestic, neoclassical female personification of America popular through the
Speaker 1: seventeen and eighteen hundreds. She often wore a breastplate and
Speaker 1: a long swirling skirt. Uncle Sam first appeared in the
Speaker 1: cartoon in the eighteen thirties. He and brother Jonathan were
Speaker 1: used from the eighteen thirties until the start of the
Speaker 1: Civil War to represent the United States. They usually wore
Speaker 1: striped pants, top hats, and whiskers. They also appeared in
Speaker 1: the British magazine Punch, illustrated by cartoonists Sir John Tenniel
Speaker 1: and John Leech. Brother Jonathan disappeared by the eighteen sixties,
Speaker 1: but Uncle Sam was taken up by cartoonist Thomas Nast,
Speaker 1: who often drew him with big boots and flyaway hair fixing.
Speaker 1: The modern image then came World War One and Flagg's
Speaker 1: well known posters. He created forty four in all, at
Speaker 1: many featuring Uncle Sam. The US government used Uncle Sam's
Speaker 1: image during both World Wars. Since then, he's been appropriated
Speaker 1: for various advocacy messages. For example, a conservative cartoon shows
Speaker 1: him reduced to a beggar, a message that the US
Speaker 1: government is spending too much, an anti war cartoon shows
Speaker 1: him as a bloodthirsty warmonger, and in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 1: Samuel L. Jackson portrayed him in Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl
Speaker 1: halftime show, playing the character as a sort of Uncle Tom,
Speaker 1: scolding Lamar's presumed lack of propriety on a national stage.
Speaker 1: Uncle Tom is a different episode, but it's clear that
Speaker 1: Uncle Sam remains a vivid presence in our cultural lexicon.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is based on the article Uncle Sam, the Band,
Speaker 1: the Myth, the Legend on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Stelle Simon pen brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in
Speaker 1: partnership with HowStuffWorks dot Com and is produced by Tyler
Speaker 1: Klangfore More podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.