March 13 was Uncle Sam Day. On this day in 1852
, the New York
Lantern newspaper published an Uncle Sam cartoon for the first time from Frank Henry Bellew. Through the years, the caricature changed with Uncle Sam becoming symbolic of the U.S. Example of this symbolism were U.S. Army posters that portrayed Uncle Sam pointing and saying, “I want you!”
He always wore red, white, and blue with a hat of stars and he had stripes down both pant legs. How he became known as Uncle Sam has been lost, but one story was about a dock worker wondering what the words “From U.S.” meant on shipping crates.Someone said jokingly, “It is from your Uncle Sam.”
