On this day, a young cartoonist named Frank Bellew turned Uncle Sam, a term applied to the U.S.A. since the war of 1812, into a recognisable American icon for the very first time. Bellew’s cartoon appeared in a weekly newspaper The New York Lantern, published in New York City. The subject of the cartoon was a request before the US Congress to augment funding for overseas mail delivery. Two shipping lines were competing for the mail trade: the American Collins Line which was losing money, and the British Cunard Line whose faster, larger fleet was eating into the American market. In the cartoon, Cunard is represented by John Bull helping a small boy to work a bellows, while the Collins Line is represented by a small boy blowing at the water by himself. Behind him is an aloof, apparently disinterested, “Uncle Sam”.
