I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple blossoms fill the air–
I have a rendezvous with Death
When spring brings back blue days and fair….

While most of the country was quite pleased that President Woodrow Wilson “kept us out of war,” there were a few Americans couldn’t wait to get into it. One of these was Alan Seeger who was so eager to join the fight that he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. No ambulance driver he; Seeger wanted to be in the thick of things. In his diary Seeger wrote: Had I the choice I would be nowhere else in the world than where I am. Even had I the chance to be liberated, I would not take it. Do not be sorrowful then. It is the shirkers and slackers alone in this war who are to be lamented. The tears for those who take part in it and who do not return should be sweetened by the sense that their death was the death which beyond all others they would have chosen for themselves, that went to it smiling and without regret, feeling that whatever value their continued presence in the world might be to humanity, it could not be greater than the example and inspiration that they were to it in so departing.”

So Seeger’s famous poem “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” was more than just empty romantic posturing, and Seeger was more than just a tinsel hero. In that same diary he chafes at being compared by critics to the recently deceased British hero-poet Rupert Brooke grousing “I never could get my book of poems published before the war.” But Seeger’s battlefield death raised him to such a position that, a few decades ago, you couldn’t browse the poetry section of a used book store without finding that same book of poems gathering dust on the shelf. That tells you that there was a time when Alan Seeger had been an immensely popular writer. Today it is no longer the case that volumes of Seeger are to had for the asking. In fact original editions seem to have become quite scarce. That tells you that people are again reading Alan Seeger and those once despised volumes have found new homes for themselves. With the publication of a recent non-fiction book dealing with Seeger and other young Americans who served in the French Foreign Legion the time seems ripe for this account, once rendered, to be opened and examined once more.

The iconic 1917 United States Army recruiting poster done by James M. Flag – was based on the 1914 United Kingdom “Lord Kitchner Wants You” poster.

Currently displayed on the wall outside of Villanova University’s Falvey Memorial Library Rare Book Room, a reproduction of this poster shows “Uncle Sam” as a personified manifestation of the national identity.

p. 12, Uncle Sam, “The Fable of John Bull and Uncle Sam”

p. 40, The Press Corrupted, “The Fable of John Bull and Uncle Sam”

Already widely deployed in popular imagery, as can be seen in the 1900 patriotic “The Fable of John Bull and Uncle Sam“, available in Villanova University’s Digital Library,  who was this “Uncle Sam”  based upon?   Some researcher’s have identified Samuel Wilson; a more likely candidate however is “Dan Rice“.

David Carlyon in his 2001 biography Dan Rice: the most famous man you’ve never heard of, noted on page 411:

“Dan Rice is the closest thing America has had to an embodiment of Uncle Sam.  He traveled nearly all the country, and the country knew him as well as it knew anyone else.  His signature goatee and top hat made him an instantly recognizable symbol. … Mythic truth aside, Rice looked the part, or rather the part looked like him.  Top-hatted, goateed Uncle Sam could be a caricature of Rice, including those formal clothes.  Rice himself had adopted a visually patriotic image.  His Pictorial of 1858 pictured him in striped pants and a starred top, and his 1860 songster put him in another flag suit.  (That songster also included the lyrics to Rice’s song, “Uncle Sam,” to the tune of “Brother Jonathan.”) If American had an actual Uncle Sam, it was Dan Rice.”

In 1856,  ‘Uncle Dan” came to town.  As seen in the advertisement in the recently digitized Tuesday, August 26, 1856 issue of the National Defender, “Dan Rice’s Great Show!” was being exhibited in Norristown, Pottstown and Doylestown.

p. [3], National Defender, v. I, no. 3, Tuesday, August 26, 1856

Take a moment this July 4th and remember Dan Rice, “Uncle Dan”, the one-and-only true model for Uncle Sam!

p. 78, Uncle Sam demands his money back, “Fable of John Bull and Uncle Sam”

Front cover, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 31, Saturday, August 3, 1918

The Chicago Ledger was a story paper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1872 until 1924. Available nationally on newsstands at time of publication, this color serial printed on lower quality paper has become one of the rarer items to find intact. Even incomplete and fragmentary issues are a rarity worth preserving, and containing fiction, advertisements, cartoons, cut-outs, and editorials. Digitization of these oft-times crumbling issues provides a way for researchers – both local and remote – to read and view this content without damage to the fragile original.

[1] p., Chicago Ledger, v. XLV, no. 50, December 15, 1917

Ongoing digitization efforts are making issues available, but especially noteworthy are the available issues published during World War I  years (1914 / 1916 / 1917 / 1918  /1919) Of course more issues are being regularly added.

After United States entry into the war, a regular feature was the inclusion of cutouts. “Look Children! Here’s fun for you!” (see below), is one of a set of color images designed to be cutout and assembled as paper toys, some of these include American tanks and fighting airplanes, and even a Red Cross ambulance! Today, digitized as high-resolution color scans, these pages can be downloaded, printed – and assembled by young and old alike  – (linked article lists many  available WWI-era cutouts).

p. 28, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 31, Saturday, August 3, 1918

From p. 28, Chicago Ledger, v. XLVI, no. 26, Saturday, June 29, 1918

Cutout event