Fact sheet: the Great Seal of the United States - includes information on the seal's history and design

US Department of State Dispatch, Sept 9, 1996

The First Committee

Before it adjourned on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress of the newly independent United States passed a resolution:

Resolved, that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams

and Mr. Jefferson, be a committee, to

bring in a device for a seal for the United

States of America.

Thus, three of the five men who had drafted the Declaration of Independence were brought together in further service to their country. The revolutionaries needed an emblem and national coat of arms to give visible evidence of a sovereign nation and a free people with high aspirations and grand hopes for the future. The task proved far more difficult than anticipated; it took six years, two more committees, and the combined efforts of 14 men before the Great Seal of the United States became a reality on June 20, 1782.

The challenge facing the committee was to translate intangible principles and ideals into graphic symbols. Three of the best minds of the Age of Enlightenment--Franklin, Adams, and Jefferson--struggled unsuccessfully with Biblical and classical themes, including the Children of Israel in the Wilderness and the Judgement of Hercules. Finally they sought the help of a talented "drawer" and portrait artist, Pierre Eugene du Simitiere. To the post of consultant, Du Simitiere brought some knowledge of heraldry--the art of describing coats of arms--and also experience in designing seals. Four features recommended by the first committee and its consultant were later adopted in the final seal: the Eye of Providence and the date of independence (MDCCLXXVI), both of which appeared on the final reverse side of the seal, and the shield and Latin motto, E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one), on the obverse side.

The first committee submitted its design on August 20, 1776, but the Congress ordered the report "to lie on the table," indicating lack of approval.

The Second Committee

In March 1780, the Congress turned the design and final report of the first committee over to a new committee, composed of James Lovell, John Morin Scott, and William Churchill Houston. They asked Francis Hopkinson, the gifted Philadelphian who had designed the American flag and the great seal of the State of New Jersey, to serve as their consultant. They, too, failed to create an acceptable seal, but, influenced by the flag adopted in 1777, they contributed to the final design--13 red and white stripes, the constellation of 13 six-pointed stars, and the olive branch, a symbol of peace.

The Third Committee

In May 1782, the Congress appointed a third committee. The three members--John Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Elias Boudinot--did little or no serious work themselves, relying on the services of William Barton of Philadelphia. A young lawyer with artistic skill and well versed in heraldry, he became a central figure in the seal's refinement.

Barton's chief contribution at this stage was the eagle--not the American bald eagle but a small, crested white eagle "displayed" (with its wings spread). He combined it with a small flag and a design for the reverse, which contained a 13-step unfinished pyramid and the first committee's Eye of Providence. He quickly drew up two designs and their technical explanations, and the committee turned in its report five days after it was appointed.

Charles Thomson's Proposal

The Congress still was not satisfied. On June 13, 1782, it presented the collected work and recommendations of the three committees to Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress. Thomson was not an artist, but he was a practical man with the ability to get things done. He selected the best features of all the previous designs, assigning prominence to the eagle. Feeling that the new nation's symbol should be strictly American, however, Thomson replaced Barton's crested Imperial eagle with the native American bald eagle, wings extending downward as though in flight. He placed in the left talon a bundle of arrows and in the right, the olive branch.

Thomson's modified crest (a device placed above the shield) was a constellation of 13 stars surrounded by clouds. The shield, borne on the eagle's breast, was a chevron design with alternating red and white stripes. Adopting the motto, E Pluribus Unum, from the first committee's report, Thomson included it on a scroll clenched in the eagle's beak. His was the first proposal in which the final design of the obverse can be seen.

In his design of the seal's reverse, Thomson retained the pyramid with the Eye of Providence in a triangle at the zenith and, as products of his Latin scholarship, introduced the mottos Annuit Coeptis (He [God] has favored our undertakings) over the eye and Nocus Ordo Seclorum (A new order of the ages) beneath the pyramid. He gave his rough sketches and reports to Barton, depending on him to polish the designs.

The Final "Device"

Barton portrayed the eagle with its wings displayed, but with wing tips upward, and simplified Thomson's chevron arrangement of stripes on the shield. He arranged 13 vertical stripes, alternately white and red, below a rectangular blue "chief" (upper part of the shield). And he specified that the arrows in the eagle's left talon should number 13.