Poster:Get in the Game with Uncle Sam

A German immigrant who came to the United States in 1882 at the age of eight, artist Joseph C. Leyendecker (1874-1951) created this nationalistic image of Uncle Sam. The poster was commissioned for a government-sponsored program to encourage American support for its impending entry into the fray of World War I. Leyendecker trained at Chicago Art Institute and later at the prestigious Academie Julian in Paris, where he his inspirations included works of artists such as Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec and Alfonse Mucha, among others. Well-established by 1917, Leyendecker continued to prosper and his career peaked during the 1920s, when he created the advertising persona known as the Arrow Shirt Man, as well as the image, for the "Saturday Evening Post" magazine, eventually recognized as the New Year's Baby. His body of works includes these images as well as work for Kellogg's and many other commissions for the United States government. Along with cartoonist Thomas Nast, Leyendecker helped popularize the image of Santa Claus as a red-suited jolly elf, and he is credited with starting the tradition of sending flowers on Mother's Day, from a "Post" cover from 1914.

The American illustrator Norman Rockwell, a personal friend of Leyendecker's and a pallbearer at his funeral, credited him as the major influence on his own illustration work. Many similarities of style and content are evident in both mens' art.