Leete’s Kitchener cover: the meme lives on

––– Anniversary favourite: Flagg’s 1917 Uncle Sam (top left) and Leete’s ‘Your Country Needs You’ Kitchener cover (top right) Alfred Leete’s brilliant illustration of a pointing Lord Kitchener created one of the world’s greatest visual memes. The combination image of two front covers above shows US artist James Montgomery Flagg’s version on this week’s Sunday Times Magazine and Leete’s artwork used in a similar way for the Daily Telegraph‘s centenary celebration magazine in 1955. The Sunday Times Magazine is marking 250 years since the US declared its independence from Britain. Leete’s Kitchener cover for London Opinion became a recruiting poster Leete’s images started life as a London Opinion magazine cover in 1914 before being used as a recruiting poster by the magazine, and then by the British official recruiting effort. Flagg based his image on Leete’s design, but used his own face as the model for his version of Uncle Sam. Like Leete’s artwork, Flagg’s was published first in a…