A personal address from a national character
James Montgomery Flagg’s I Want You for U.S. Army became a defining American recruitment image during the First World War. The National WWI Museum and Memorial places the 1917 design in relation to the earlier British recruiting image of Lord Kitchener.
Uncle Sam’s eyes and pointing finger make the message appear directed at each individual viewer. The figure embodies the country, but the request is personal. Large words and the recruiting-station instruction turn that encounter into an action.
Why the design is so memorable
The pale background leaves the face, hand and coloured clothing little competition. Red and blue borders hold the figure and slogan together. The composition makes it difficult to treat the message as something addressed only to other people.
The edition shown here carries the “nearest recruiting station” wording associated with the familiar First World War design. Later reuses of Uncle Sam should be identified by their own captions and printings. Compare it with the beckoning Marine poster: both draw the viewer into the image, but one speaks through a national personification and the other through a serving uniformed figure.