Great Seal of the United States | Facts, History, & Symbolism (2024)

Great Seal of the United States, official seal of the United States of America. The design of the obverse is the coat of arms of the United States—an official emblem, mark of identification, and symbol of the authority of the government. On the reverse is an unfinished pyramid topped with an eye enclosed in a triangle. Above this are the words Annuit Cœptis (“He Has Favored Our Undertaking”). Carved at the base of the pyramid is MDCCLXXVI (1776) in reference to the Declaration of Independence, and below that is the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum (“A New Order of the Ages”).

The seal has a limited use which is strictly guarded by law. Title 18 of the United States Code (as amended in January 1971) prohibits the display of the seal

in, or in connection with, any advertisem*nt, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose of conveying, or in a manner reasonably calculated to convey, a false impression of sponsorship or approval by the Government of the United States or by any department, agency, or instrumentality thereof.

As the functions of the federal government expanded over the years, the extent of its use was curtailed from time to time by acts of Congress or executive order. For instance, where originally the seal was affixed to all civil (not military or naval) commissions signed by the president, now persons appointed by the president to serve under most of the cabinet officers other than the secretary of state are commissioned under the seals of the respective departments.

Currently the seal is affixed to instruments of ratification of treaties; proclamations of treaties; full powers; exequaturs; presidential warrants for the extradition of fugitives from the justice of the United States; and commissions of cabinet officers, ambassadors, foreign service officers, and all other civil officers appointed by the president whose commissions are not required by law to issue under another seal. It is affixed also to the envelope enclosing a ceremonial communication from the president to the head of a foreign state or government. To commissions that issue under the seal, the secretary of state is required by law to cause it to be affixed after the president has signed. For “any other instrument or act” the secretary formerly required a special warrant from the president directing him to do so. An executive order of April 18, 1952, however, dispensed with the warrant for documents within the abovementioned categories. An executive order of May 23, 1967, exempted all presidential proclamations except those of treaties and other international agreements from passing under the seal. Except for the commissions of a few civil officers, the Great Seal is now used only in connection with international affairs.

Legally the seal has two names, "Seal of the United States" and "Great Seal." Both appear in acts of Congress and in a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, and both are in general use. In the resolution of June 20, 1782, creating it, the term used is “great seal.” During the early years of the Department of State that designation served to distinguish it from the seal of the department, then called the “seal of office” or “privy seal.” The act of 1789, however, declared the seal of 1782 to be the “seal of the United States”; in documents to which it is affixed there is long-standing precedent for the same wording; and several publications of the Department of State have been so titled.

Origin of the Great Seal

By the 18th century it was typical for rulers of nations to authenticate important state documents by affixing a seal as a symbol of the governing power. Accordingly, when the United States came into existence, the Continental Congress acted to provide a seal for the new nation. Declaring independence on July 4, 1776, Congress that evening named Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson a committee “to bring in a device for a seal for the United States of America.”

The committee consulted with Philadelphia artist Pierre Eugène du Simitière. Choosing a design of his, with slight changes, for the obverse, and one by Franklin for the reverse, it reported to Congress on August 20, 1776. That body tabled the report and deferred further action. However, certain elements carried over into the seal that was adopted: the shield, the motto E pluribus unum (seemingly contributed by Franklin), the “Eye of Providence in a radiant Triangle,” and the date “MDCCLXXVI.”

On March 25, 1780, Congress referred the report to a new committee, consisting of James Lovell of Massachusetts, John Morin Scott of New York, and William Churchill Houston of New Jersey. Meanwhile, on June 14, 1777, Congress had adopted the Stars and Stripes as the national flag. The new committee, aided by the versatile Francis Hopkinson, reported its design on May 10 or 11, 1780. On May 17 Congress considered the report and ordered it recommitted. Although it suffered the fate of the earlier proposal, certain of its elements also carried over into the final seal: the colours red, white, and blue on the shield; the olive branch; and the crest of a “radiant constellation of 13 Stars.”

In the spring of 1782 Congress appointed as a third committee Arthur Middleton and John Rutledge of South Carolina and Elias Boudinot of New Jersey. This committee sought help from William Barton, a young Philadelphian accomplished in heraldry and drawing. Barton prepared two complicated designs, the second of which the committee reported to Congress on May 9, 1782. In this design the “eagle displayed” appeared on the obverse, and the pyramid on the reverse, with the latter approaching its final form. Still unsatisfied, however, Congress on June 13 referred this and the previous reports to Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress.

With the reports of the three committees before him, Thomson now prepared his own design. Adopting the eagle from Barton’s design as the central figure, he specified that it be an “American Eagle” and “on the Wing & rising” instead of “displayed.” On the eagle’s breast he placed the shield, and on the shield he rearranged in the form of chevrons the white and red stripes that the second committee had made diagonal and that Barton had made horizontal. In the eagle’s right talon he placed an olive branch, from the design of the second committee, and in the left talon a bundle of arrows. For the crest he took the constellation of 13 stars from the design of the second committee. From the report of the first committee he adopted the motto E Pluribus Urum, placing it on a scroll in the eagle’s beak. For the reverse he accepted Barton’s design, substituting, however, new mottoes, reintroducing the date “MDCCLXXVI,” and replacing the “Eye, surrounded with a Glory” with "an Eye in a triangle surrounded with a glory," from the first committee’s report. Thomson handed Barton a written description of this design together with a rough sketch of the obverse.

On June 19, 1782, Barton rewrote Thomson’s description of the obverse in the precise language of heraldry. He made a major change in the shield, substituting for Thomson’s chevrons 13 vertical stripes alternately white and red below a blue chief. He restored the “displayed” posture of the eagle and specified that the arrows should number 13.

Promptly on receiving Barton’s paper of June 19, Thomson penned a report to Congress. Basing it on Barton’s paper, with minor omissions, and adding his own earlier description of the reverse (which he had adapted from Barton), he submitted it to Congress the next day. By resolution of June 20, 1782, Congress adopted Thomson’s report. Its heraldic description, or blazon, which has the force of law, reads as follows (Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, vol. xxii, pp. 338–339; for Thomson’s explanation of the symbolism, see pp. 339–340):

ARMS. Paleways of thirteen pieces, argent and gules; a chief, azure; the escutcheon on the breast of the American eagle displayed proper, holding in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak a scroll, inscribed with this motto, “E pluribus Unum.”

For the CREST. Over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars, forming a constellation, argent, on an azure field.

REVERSE. A pyramid unfinished. In the zenith, an eye in a triangle, surrounded with a glory proper. Over the eye these words, “Annuit Coeptis.” On the base of the pyramid the numerical letters MDCCLXXVI. And underneath the following motto, “Novus Ordo Seculorum.”

The three Latin mottoes have been translated, “Out of many, one”; “He [God] has favoured our undertakings”; and “A new order of the ages.”

Within three months the obverse was cut in brass. The earliest known impression is on a document dated September 16, 1782, authorizing Gen. George Washington to negotiate with the British regarding prisoners of war. The seal and press remained with Charles Thomson as secretary of the Continental Congress until he delivered them on July 23, 1789, to Washington as president under the Constitution. An act of the new Congress, approved September 15, 1789, changed the Department of Foreign Affairs to the Department of State, including provisions for the custody and use of the seal as follows:

…the seal heretofore used by the United States in Congress assembled, shall be, and hereby is declared to be, the seal of the United States.

…the said Secretary shall keep the said seal, and shall make out and record, and shall affix the said seal to all civil commissions, to officers of the United States, to be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, or by the President alone.

Provided, That the said seal shall not be affixed to any commission, before the same shall have been signed by the President of the United States, nor to any other instrument or act, without the special warrant of the President therefor.