Great Seal of the United States
Obverse
The Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which is in the keeping of the US Secretary of State), and more generally for the design represented upon it. The Great Seal was first publicly used in 1782.
Unlike many countries which use a present or former royal coat of arms for symbolic purposes, the United States has no historical arms; in 1776 it went straight from a collection of colonies attached to Great Britain to an independent republic. Nor has it ever adopted any 'national coat of arms.' However, the image from the obverse of the great seal is often used informally as national arms. The description below refers to colored representations of the seal as often seen; the phyisical Great Seal itself, as affixed to documents, is of course monochrome.
Table of contents [hide]
1 Design
1.1 Obverse
1.2 Reverse
1.3 Significance
2 History
3 Current Seal
4 The Great Seal as Coat of Arms
5 External links
[edit]
Design
[edit]
Obverse
The main figure on the obverse (front) of the seal is a Bald Eagle with its wings outstretched ("displayed," in heraldic terms). It holds a bundle of arrows in the left talon and an olive branch in the right, symbolic respectively of war and peace. The eagle clutches the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one) in its beak; over its head there appears a 'glory' with thirteen stars on a blue field.
The shield the eagle bears on its breast, though sometimes drawn incorrectly, has two main differences from the American flag; it has no stars on the blue chief, and unlike the flag the outermost stripes are white, not red. It is usually blazoned Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure. This is technically incorrect blazon, as a shield cannot be paly (vertically striped) of an uneven number; more proper blazon would be argent, six pallets gules... (six red stripes on a white field). But the incorrect blazon is used to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies.
[edit]
Reverse
An unfinished pyramid appears on the reverse of the seal, inscribed on its base with the date 1776 in Roman numerals. Where the top of the pyramid should be, the so-called eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottoes appear: Annuit Cœptis signifies that somebody (presumably Providence) has "nodded at (our) beginnings." Novus Ordo Seclorum, a quotation from Virgil, refers to a "new order of the ages," i.e. a paradigm shift.
[edit]
Significance
Since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal appear on the reverse of the One-Dollar Bill of the United States.
The symbolism of the obverse is obvious --- the shield is reminiscent of the national flag, and the Bald Eagle is a well-known national symbol.
That of the reverse is more murky. The image of the eye on the pyramid has frequently been said to have its origins in Masonic iconography. Conspiracy theories abound about the presence of such Masonic and Illuminati symbology on a national emblem. (Some have noted that it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a 32nd degree Mason, who put the Great Seal on the one-dollar bill.)
Another controversy centers on the pattern of the glory of stars on the obverse. Some historians believe that Haym Solomon, the financial genius and banker of the American Revolution, played a role in the seal's design. He was Jewish, and the stars appear to be arranged, roughly, in a Star of David pattern; so the suggestion has been made that they might be a mark of "recognition" for Haym Solomon's efforts.
[edit]
History
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress named a committee to design a great seal for the country. Almost six years and three committees later they still had not agreed on a design. Finally the problem was turned over to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the congress, who merged elements from all three previous attempts. Congress finally approved his integrated design, still in use today, and had it engraved into brass cylinders ("matrices") about 2.25 inches in diameter.
On September 16, 1782 Thomson used these matrices for the first time, to verify signatures on a document that authorized George Washington to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. Thomson took care of the seal until the Constitution installed a new American Government in 1789, when he passed it over to the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. He and all following secretaries have been responsible for applying the seal to diplomatic documents.
The first matrices of the seal were replaced in 1841 when they became too worn to be effective.
On the Great Seal as depicted in the Seal of the President of the United States, the bald eagle originally faced its left talon holding the bundle of arrows, symbolizing the "power of war." Following World War II, President Harry Truman issued an executive order on October 25, 1945 specifying that the eagle face the olive branch instead, as such symbolizing a nation "both on the march and dedicated to peace." It is said that Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom told Truman during a 1946 visit that he thought the eagle's head should be on a swivel.
There have been a total of seven reengravings of the seal since the original, which is now on display in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
[edit]
Current Seal
The obverse side of Great Seal is used to emboss the design on international treaties and other official US Government documents. It is stored in the Exhibit Hall of the US Department of State inside a locked glass enclosure. An officer from the State Department does the actual sealing of documents after the US Secretary of State has countersigned the President's signature. It is used 2,000 to 3,000 times a year.
[edit]
The Great Seal as Coat of Arms
The obverse of the Great Seal of the United States is the de facto coat of arms of the United States of America, and it is recognized as such worldwide.
ObverseThe Great Seal of the United States is used to authenticate certain documents issued by the United States government. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which is in the keeping of the US Secretary of State), and more generally for the design represented upon it. The Great Seal was first publicly used in 1782.
Unlike many countries which use a present or former royal coat of arms for symbolic purposes, the United States has no historical arms; in 1776 it went straight from a collection of colonies attached to Great Britain to an independent republic. Nor has it ever adopted any 'national coat of arms.' However, the image from the obverse of the great seal is often used informally as national arms. The description below refers to colored representations of the seal as often seen; the phyisical Great Seal itself, as affixed to documents, is of course monochrome.
Table of contents [hide]
1 Design
1.1 Obverse
1.2 Reverse
1.3 Significance
2 History
3 Current Seal
4 The Great Seal as Coat of Arms
5 External links
[edit]
Design
[edit]
Obverse
The main figure on the obverse (front) of the seal is a Bald Eagle with its wings outstretched ("displayed," in heraldic terms). It holds a bundle of arrows in the left talon and an olive branch in the right, symbolic respectively of war and peace. The eagle clutches the motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of many, one) in its beak; over its head there appears a 'glory' with thirteen stars on a blue field.
The shield the eagle bears on its breast, though sometimes drawn incorrectly, has two main differences from the American flag; it has no stars on the blue chief, and unlike the flag the outermost stripes are white, not red. It is usually blazoned Paly of thirteen argent and gules, a chief azure. This is technically incorrect blazon, as a shield cannot be paly (vertically striped) of an uneven number; more proper blazon would be argent, six pallets gules... (six red stripes on a white field). But the incorrect blazon is used to preserve the reference to the thirteen original colonies.
[edit]
Reverse
An unfinished pyramid appears on the reverse of the seal, inscribed on its base with the date 1776 in Roman numerals. Where the top of the pyramid should be, the so-called eye of Providence watches over it. Two mottoes appear: Annuit Cœptis signifies that somebody (presumably Providence) has "nodded at (our) beginnings." Novus Ordo Seclorum, a quotation from Virgil, refers to a "new order of the ages," i.e. a paradigm shift.
[edit]
Significance
Since 1935, both sides of the Great Seal appear on the reverse of the One-Dollar Bill of the United States.
The symbolism of the obverse is obvious --- the shield is reminiscent of the national flag, and the Bald Eagle is a well-known national symbol.
That of the reverse is more murky. The image of the eye on the pyramid has frequently been said to have its origins in Masonic iconography. Conspiracy theories abound about the presence of such Masonic and Illuminati symbology on a national emblem. (Some have noted that it was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a 32nd degree Mason, who put the Great Seal on the one-dollar bill.)
Another controversy centers on the pattern of the glory of stars on the obverse. Some historians believe that Haym Solomon, the financial genius and banker of the American Revolution, played a role in the seal's design. He was Jewish, and the stars appear to be arranged, roughly, in a Star of David pattern; so the suggestion has been made that they might be a mark of "recognition" for Haym Solomon's efforts.
[edit]
History
On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress named a committee to design a great seal for the country. Almost six years and three committees later they still had not agreed on a design. Finally the problem was turned over to Charles Thomson, the secretary of the congress, who merged elements from all three previous attempts. Congress finally approved his integrated design, still in use today, and had it engraved into brass cylinders ("matrices") about 2.25 inches in diameter.
On September 16, 1782 Thomson used these matrices for the first time, to verify signatures on a document that authorized George Washington to negotiate an exchange of prisoners. Thomson took care of the seal until the Constitution installed a new American Government in 1789, when he passed it over to the Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson. He and all following secretaries have been responsible for applying the seal to diplomatic documents.
The first matrices of the seal were replaced in 1841 when they became too worn to be effective.
On the Great Seal as depicted in the Seal of the President of the United States, the bald eagle originally faced its left talon holding the bundle of arrows, symbolizing the "power of war." Following World War II, President Harry Truman issued an executive order on October 25, 1945 specifying that the eagle face the olive branch instead, as such symbolizing a nation "both on the march and dedicated to peace." It is said that Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom told Truman during a 1946 visit that he thought the eagle's head should be on a swivel.
There have been a total of seven reengravings of the seal since the original, which is now on display in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
[edit]
Current Seal
The obverse side of Great Seal is used to emboss the design on international treaties and other official US Government documents. It is stored in the Exhibit Hall of the US Department of State inside a locked glass enclosure. An officer from the State Department does the actual sealing of documents after the US Secretary of State has countersigned the President's signature. It is used 2,000 to 3,000 times a year.
[edit]
The Great Seal as Coat of Arms
The obverse of the Great Seal of the United States is the de facto coat of arms of the United States of America, and it is recognized as such worldwide.