Uncle Sam's Hat 2017 Additional Ounce Stamps — Patriotic Issue (Not a Forever Stamp)

Please note: this is an additional-ounce stamp, not a Forever Stamp. Add it to a letter that runs past the first ounce.

Where Uncle Sam came from

The figure has stood in for the United States since the early 1800s. His precise origin is disputed; the values attached to him are not.

The name surfaced during the War of 1812, but it took Thomas Nast's political cartoons of the 1870s to make the character familiar. Nast borrowed features from Abraham Lincoln for the face and invented the wardrobe everyone now pictures — striped trousers, tailcoat, and the tall stars-and-stripes hat.

The poster

Uncle Sam took his modern form during World War I, in James Montgomery Flagg's recruitment poster: the stern stare, the pointing finger, "I Want YOU For U.S. Army." More than four million copies were printed, and the image is still a national icon over a century later.

Between Nast and Flagg, the character became instantly readable to every American. He remains a symbol of the American spirit for as long as the country keeps faith with what he stands for — liberty, justice and equality for all.

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