CONGRESS RECOGNIZES THE MAN BEHIND UNCLE SAM
Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On September 7, 1813, the Congress of the United States officially recognized Samuel Wilson* as "the progenitor of America's national symbol."
Samuel Wilson was a meat packer who has supplied barrels of beef to the US Army during the War of 1812 with Great Britain. Wilson stamped his beef barrels with the letters "U.S." for United States. American soldiers, however, called the beef Uncle Sam's.
In the late 1800s, political cartoonist Thomas Nast popularized the image of "Uncle Sam", but the most famous image comes from James Montgomery Flagg's illustration for a WWI recruiting poster with the caption 'I WANT YOU FOR U.S.ARMY'.
*Samuel Wilson (1766-1854) was born in Menotomy, Massachusetts. He later moved to New Hampshire and then to Troy, NY. He served in the War for Independence and afterward became a brickmaker. In 1793, he opened a slaughterhouse in Troy.
"Uncle Sam" Wilson
Poster by James Montgomery Flagg
Sam Wilson's Grave
Troy, New York
by Boris Karpachev (2003)
