Uncle Sam didn’t really become a household name until Thomas Nast’s sketches in Harper’s Weekly in the late 1860s and ’70s, when Nast made him a hero of the Union cause. An 1869 cartoon by ...

and Uncle Sam. Publishing regularly in Harper's Weekly, the celebrated Nast drew thousands of cartoons during the second half of the nineteenth century. Like many Northerners, Nast supported ...

Along with thoughts of beer and fireworks, Uncle Sam generally comes to mind around ... name apparently evolved from a Revolutionary War cartoon character named Brother Jonathan, a moralistic ...

Uncle Sam is one tough old avatar. Cartoonists and designers of all stripes have relied on him as a handy symbol of the U.S. government for ages. He’s evolved in small ways—his costume has ...