Defend Your Country (1940), Tom Woodburn's Uncle Sam for the Army

Defend Your Country is a 1940 U.S. Army enlistment poster from the Recruiting Publicity Bureau, by the artist Tom B. Woodburn. Uncle Sam, in star-and-stripe trousers, strides in front of a gold disc and a bald eagle with his coat and hat thrown down, over "Enlist now in the United States Army" (NAID 513694).

Uncle Sam sheds his coat

Woodburn shows the national figure in mid-stride and stern-faced, wearing his striped and starred trousers. Behind him are a gold disc and a bald eagle. His coat and hat lie on the ground, cast off for the job at hand. The text is a headline and a request.

DEFEND

YOUR COUNTRY

ENLIST NOW in the

UNITED STATES ARMY

[signature: Tom Woodburn]

[imprint: Copyright 1940, Tom B. Woodburn]

[imprint: P-25-RPB-5-20-40-12,500]

What the imprint says, and does not

The sheet carries two imprint lines. One is a copyright in the artist's own name for 1940. The other is a string of letters and numbers whose "RPB" matches the initials of the Recruiting Publicity Bureau named in the maker line. The record does not decode the rest of that string. The archive's rights line still calls the sheet a public-domain U.S. government work. The two statements are both on the record; the record does not reconcile them.

A request for volunteers

The FRAME catalog tags glittering generalities and transfer, and the purpose is listed as "Recruit." The transfer is plain: eagle, gold, stars and stripes, and the national personification himself are lent to an Army enlistment office. "Defend your country" is a broad value phrase that tells the reader nothing about pay, term, or posting.

What the poster asks for is a choice. "Enlist now" is addressed to someone who may say no. Nothing on the sheet mentions a draft or a penalty. A republic that fills its army by asking, and lets the citizen decide, is doing the thing this site counts in its favor. The imagery is heavy, but the request is honest about what it wants.

An earlier use of the same move is James Montgomery Flagg's Tell That to the Marines! of 1918, where an angry civilian tears off his coat. The Roosevelt administration essay treats the government's wartime messaging as a whole.