Thomas Nast and James Montgomery Flagg

For those of us who love cartooning and history, Thomas Nast should be a very familiar name.  He is most famously credited for designing the donkey as the symbol for the Democratic Party, the elephant for the Republican Party and gave us our 'modern' image of Santa Claus.

Following his death in 1902, Thomas Nast's obituary in Harper's Weekly stated, "He has been called, perhaps not with accuracy, but with substantial justice, the Father of American Caricature."

Check out his drawings and biography http://cartoons.osu.edu/nast/index.htm

However, the famous recruitment poster of Uncle Sam was created by James Montgomery Flagg, an illustrator and portrait artist best known for commercial art.  It was released in 1916, and used a lot in WWI and WWII