Description
The I Want You for U.S. Army poster
I Want You for U.S. Army is the most famous American poster ever printed. James Montgomery Flagg painted Uncle Sam for the cover of Leslie’s Weekly on 6 July 1916, under the question What are you doing for preparedness?, and when the United States entered the war in April 1917 the picture was reissued as an Army recruiting poster. About four million copies were printed in 1917 and 1918, and millions more went up again after Pearl Harbor.
Flagg used his own face as the model, ageing it in the mirror with a white goatee and the star-spangled top hat, and the pose owes something to Alfred Leete’s 1914 British poster of Lord Kitchener. In 1942 Flagg told President Roosevelt he had posed himself to save a modelling fee; Roosevelt congratulated him on his Yankee thrift.
This edition was restored from an original 1917 printing, copyright Leslie-Judge Co., New York, with Flagg’s signature and the Nearest Recruiting Station line kept from the print.
Read the full history of the poster.
Restored edition
Restored from a photograph of an original print. The colour was cleaned and brought back, with folds, stains, tears and wear removed. The lettering and printed marks are kept from the original.
Sizes and options
- Paper print: 11.7 × 16.5 in, 20 × 28 in or 23.4 × 33.1 in
- Framed print: 12 × 17 in, 20 × 28 in or 23 × 33 in, in a black, white or natural wood frame, ready to hang
Printed to order in the USA on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Art paper. Free Standard shipping to the US. Compare the print sizes.
More posters
See Join Army Navy Marines, or browse the recruitment collection.













