Uncle Sam (which has the same initials as United States) is a common national personification of the federal government of the United States 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, popularized by a famous 1917 World War I recruiting poster by J. M. Flagg.

According to legend, the character came into use during the War of 1812 and may have been named for Samuel Wilson. 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. 

While the figure of Uncle Sam specifically represents the government, the female figure of Columbia represents the United States as a nation. An archaic character, Brother Jonathan, was known to represent the American populace.

Earlier personifications 

The earliest known personification of the United States was as a woman named Columbia, who first appeared in 1738 (pre-US) and sometimes was associated with another female personification, Lady Liberty. 

With the American Revolutionary War of 1775 came Brother Jonathan, a male personification. Brother Jonathan saw full literary development into the personification of American national character through the 1825 novel Brother Jonathan by John Neal.

Uncle Sam finally appeared after the War of 1812. Columbia appeared with either Brother Jonathan 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 in the 1920s.

A March 24, 1810, journal entry by Isaac Mayo (a midshipman in the US Navy) states:
weighed anchor stood down the harbor, passed Sandy Hook, 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

An 1810 edition of Niles' Weekly Register has a footnote defining Uncle Sam as "a cant term in the army for the United States." Presumably, it came from the abbreviation of the United States of America: 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 Samuel Wilson, a meatpacker from Troy, New York, 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 [the contractor] and 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, Brother Jonathan 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 Brother Jonathan 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, while a contemporaneous depiction of Brother Jonathan looks more like the modern version of Uncle Sam, though without a goatee.

An 1893 article in The Lutheran Witness claims Uncle Sam was simply another name for Brother Jonathan:When we meet him in politics we call him Uncle Sam; when we meet him in society we call him Brother Jonathan. Here of late Uncle Sam alias Brother Jonathan 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, until the well-known recruitment image of Uncle Sam was first created by James Montgomery Flagg during World War I. The image was inspired by a British recruitment poster 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 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, during which the US was codenamed "Samland" by the German intelligence agency Abwehr. The term was central in the song "The Yankee Doodle Boy", which was featured in 1942 in the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy.

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, Troy, New York. 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 for Bell System.

In 1989, "Uncle Sam Day" became official. A Congressional joint resolution designated September 13, 1989, as "Uncle Sam Day", the birthday of Samuel Wilson. In 2015, the family history company MyHeritage researched Uncle Sam's family tree and claims to have tracked down his living relatives.

See also
 Uncle Sam billboard
 Personification of the Americas
 Propaganda in the United States

References

Further reading
 Bivins, Thomas H. "The body politic: the changing shape of Uncle Sam." Journalism Quarterly 64.1 (1987): 13-20.
 Dewey, Donald. The art of ill will: The story of American political cartoons (NYU Press, 2007). online

 Gerson, Thomas I. The Story of Uncle Sam: Godfather of America (March 1959) West Sand Lake, NY: "Uncle Sam" Enterprises, Inc.
 Mouraux, Cecile, and Jean-Pierre Mouraux. Who Was "Uncle Sam": Illustrated Story of the Life of Our National Symbol. Sonoma, CA: Poster Collector (2006). 
 Jacques, George W. The Life and Times of Uncle Sam (2007). Troy, NY: IBT Global. .
 Palczewski, Catherine H. "The male Madonna and the feminine Uncle Sam: Visual argument, icons, and ideographs in 1909 anti-woman suffrage postcards." Quarterly Journal of Speech 91.4 (2005): 365-394. online

 Wilde, Lukas RA, and Shane Denson. "Historicizing and Theorizing Pre-Narrative Figures—Who is Uncle Sam?." Narrative 30.2 (2022): 152-168. online

 A collection of reviews of the book "Who Was Uncle Sam" by Jean-Pierre and Cecile Moreaux.

External links

Uncle Sam: The man and the meme by Natalie Elder (National Museum of American History)
Historical Uncle Sam pictures

What's the origin of Uncle Sam? The Straight Dope
Uncle Sam online, links to 550 books

American culture
Fictional American people
Legendary American people
National symbols of the United States
National personifications
Holiday characters
Fictional characters introduced in the 19th century
엉클 샘(Uncle Sam, ‘샘 아저씨’)은 미국을 의인화한 것이다. 1812년 미영전쟁 때 처음 쓰였고 1852년에 처음으로 그림이 그려졌다고 하며, 전하는 바에 의하면 새뮤얼 윌슨의 이름이 붙여진 것이다. 문학 작품에서 최초로 사용된 것은 1816년 프레드릭 오거스터스 피드패디가 쓴 우화 책 《잃어버린 명예를 찾아 샘 아저씨의 모험》(The Adventures of Uncle Sam in Search After His Lost Honor)이다. 엉클 샘은 1775년 초기 오리지널 양키 두들에 미국 독립 전쟁의 가사로 언급되어 있다. 이렇게 참조한 것이 엉클 샘이 미합중국(U.S.)에 대한 은유로서 사용되었는 지에 대해서는 명확하지 않다. 이 가사는 대체적으로 보스톤에서 영국을 포위하고 있는 젊은 국가의 군사적 노력을 조롱하는 내용이다.(보스턴 포위전 참조) 13절을 보면 다음과 같다.

보통 흰 머리에 턱수염을 하고 미국의 국기를 연상시키는 복장을 한 나이든 남자로 그려진다. 약자로 하면 미합중국과 같이 U.S.가 되기 때문에 미국의 상징으로 여겨진다.

초기의 의인화
가장 초기의 미국 의인화로 알려졌던 것은 1738년 처음 등장했던 컬럼비아이며, 때때로 자유와 함께 연결되기도 하였다.

미국독립전쟁으로 인해 브라더 조너선이 또 다른 의인화 캐릭터로 등장했으며, 결국 1812년 전쟁(영미전쟁) 이후 엉클 쌤이 등장했다.

진화
‘엉클 샘’이라는 용어는 세상 사람들의 말에 따르면 군인들에게 고기를 납품하는 뉴욕주 트로이의 정육업자 새뮤얼 윌슨으로부터 왔다고 한다. 당시에는 계약자에게 보내는 음식 위에 스탬프를 찍을 것을 요구했는데, 그들의 이름과 산지를 표시하는 것이었다. 윌슨의 포장지에는 “E.A – US.”라고 찍혔다. 누군가가 저게 무엇을 나타내느냐고 묻자, 소포에 적힌 것은 미합중국(U.S.)를 나타내는 것이었지만, 동료가 샘 윌슨(Sam Wilson)을 언급하며 농담을 하기를 앨버트 앤더슨(Elbert Anderson, 계약자)과 엉클 샘(Uncle Sam)이라고 했다.

1835년 초기 브라더 조너선은 그들이 다른 것을 상징화한 것을 암시하면서 엉클 샘을 참조했다. 브라더 조너선은 나라 그 자체이지만, 엉클 샘은 정부와 권력을 나타낸 것이다.

1850년대에 브라더 조너선과 엉클 샘은 소위 브라더 조너선이 현재 엉클 샘으로 불리는 것과 같은 이미지의 관점에서 거의 서로 바꿔가며 사용되고 있었다. 두 화신의 외모가 모두 상당히 달라졌다. 예를 들면, 1865년 6월 3일 《하퍼스 위클리》에 그려진 체크메이트 정치 만화에서 1860년의 엉클 샘 그림은 벤저민 프랭클린처럼 보이도록 그려지고 있었다. 반면, 1862년 1월 11일판 하퍼스 위클리 32 페이지에 나오는 브라더 조너선의 그림은 염소 수염을 제외하면 현대판 엉클 샘을 많이 닮아 있다.

그러나 남북 전쟁 말기 브라더 조너선 (즉, 자니 렙)은 사실상 버려졌으며, 잘 알려진 엉클 샘의 자원입대 이미지가 제임스 몽고메리 플래그에 의해 창조될 때까지 엉클 샘은 표준적인 외모를 얻지 못했다. (플래그는 유사한 포즈를 하고 있는 키치너 경이 보여주는 영국의 입대 포스터에 의해 자극을 받았다.) 이 이미지가 엉클 샘의 외모를 흰머리에 염소수염을 하고, 파란 테 위에 흰 별이 탑 햇을 쓰고서, 붉은색과 흰색의 줄이 있는 바지를 입은 인물로 확정한 것이다.

엉클 샘의 이미지가 최초로 선보인 것은 1916년 7월 6일 《레슬리스 위클리》 잡지의 표지로 제임스 몽고메리 플래그가 그렸으며, “What Are You Doing for Preparedness?”라는 표제와 함께였다. 이 그림은 400만부 이상이 1917년에서 1918년 사이에 인쇄되었다.

비록 콜럼비아가 브라더 조너선이나 엉클 샘과 함께 등장했지만, 미국의 의인화로서의 해방을 지지하는 그녀의 쓰임은 점점 줄어들었다. 일단, 그녀가 1920년대 컬럼비아 픽처스의 마스코트가 되자, 그녀는 사실상 폐기되었다.

플래그의 이미지는 제2차 세계대전 동안 광범위하게 사용되었으며, 그 기간 독일 정보국 아프베아에 의해 ‘샘랜드’(Samland)라는 코드명이 붙었다.  이 용어는 〈양키 두들 보이〉(The Yankee Doodle Boy)라는 노래에서 중심이 되었으며, 1942년에 이것은 뮤지컬 〈양키 두들 댄디〉(Yankee Doodle Dandy)로 선을 보였다.

엉클 샘에 대한 2가지 기념물(출생지인 매사추세츠 알링턴에 있는 엉클 샘의 기념동상)이 있고, 둘 모두 새뮤얼 윌슨의 삶은 찬양하는 것이었다.

같이 보기 
 존 불

각주

외부 링크 

 남북전쟁 하퍼스 위클리 신문
 역사적인 엉클 샘 그림
 제임스 몽고메리 Flagg's 1917 "I Want You" 포스터와 기타 작품 (인터넷 아카이브 2004년 10월 28일 사본)
 엉클 샘의 기원은?  The Straight Dope
 평화를 촉구하는 현대의 엉클 샘 이미지 

나라 의인화
미국의 상징