NEW YORK — A World War I-era U.S. Army "I WANT YOU" recruitment poster has sold for $20,000 at an auction of some 2,000 wartime posters.
The poster sold Tuesday at Guersney's in Manhattan is one of four of James Montgomery Flagg's iconic Uncle Sam posters included in the Col. Edward H. McCrahon collection. The poster had a pre-sale estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.
The Brooklyn-born McCrahon joined the French army in 1915. Then he enlisted in the U.S. Army two years later when America entered the war. By the mid-1930s he had collected several thousand WWI posters produced by many of the nations involved in the conflict.
The collection is being sold by his grandchildren.
The two-day online auction concludes Wednesday.
