What Is the U.S. Presidential Seal?

American presidents can opt to affix the presidential seal to official documents and have used it as an official decoration. Learn the how and why the seal was created, plus the symbolism behind it, in this episode of BrainStuff.

Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Lauren vog obam here. Over the years, you've probably noticed
the emblem emblazoned on the side of Air Force one.
It's also attached to the podium from which the U.
S President gives speeches and appears on official White House
stationary and invitations. A railroad locomotive painted to honor President

(00:24):
George H. W. Bush is decorated with it. It's the
Seal of the President of the United States of America.
The Presidential Seal looks similar with slight differences, to the
Great Seal of the United States, the official symbol that's
impressed upon official documents such as treaties and commissions. The
precise design of the Presidential Seal was detailed in Executive

(00:44):
Order ninety issued in October by President Harry S. Truman.
It specified that the seal depict an American eagle that's
holding an olive branch and its right talent and a
bundle of thirteen arrows to symbolize the original thirteen States
and its left while clutching in its peak. A white
scroll inscribed with the motto e pluribus unum Latin for

(01:06):
out of many one. Behind and above the eagle, there's
a background of radiating glory, a depiction of rays of light,
crossed by an arc of thirteen cloud puffs, below which
there's a constellation of Mullet's argent, which are five pointed
compass stars. That image is surrounded by a ring of
white stars symbolizing the current fifty United States, and around

(01:29):
that another circle with the lettering seal of the President
of the United States. Though the presidential seals precise origins
are unclear, it was clearly inspired by the Great Seal.
That national symbol was adopted by the Continental Congress in
two after Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thompson merged
ideas from several committees into a sketch that subsequently was

(01:52):
modified by heraldist Thomas Barton. That's according to the State
Departments nine six Official History of the Great Seal, written
by rich As Patterson and Richardson Dougal. But at some
point U S presidents decided that, like the British monarch,
they needed their own personal coat of arms as well.
We spoke by email with Matthew Costello, senior historian for

(02:14):
the White House Historical Association, He said that the Great
Seal quote was the official symbol of the United States
federal government, not the office of the presidency. As such,
some presidents simply used the Great Seal, while others thought
that the president should have their own distinct seal. Costello
explains at least several presidents in the eighteen hundreds created

(02:35):
their own seals, incorporating whatever flourishes appealed to them. James K. Polk,
for example, used his own seal on the proclamation of
war against Mexico. In eighteen forty six. Millard Fillmore came
up with his own slightly different version, which he sent
to Maryland postmaster and engraver Edward Stabler to make. In
eighteen fifty, Lincoln used a personalized seal as well. A

(02:58):
presidential seal actually appear on an invitation to an event
until eighteen seventy seven, according to author's Patterson and Dugal
President Rutherford B. Hayes, who was hosting a dinner honoring
Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovitch, made the invites look fancier
by emblazoning them with a seal that featured an arc
of clouds, rays, and stars between the eagles wingtips, but

(03:21):
the Hayes eagle was thinner and scrawnier than today's robust
looking eagle, and its head was turned toward the bundle
of arrows rather than toward the olive branch. In nineteen
o two, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered yet another presidential seal
to be installed on the floor of the White House
entrance hall. He commissioned to French American sculptor Philip Martine
to create a new one. Martine drew upon the Hayes design,

(03:44):
but added a few changes, including engraving the phrase the
Seal of the President of the United States in that
circular border. Truman, who didn't like Martine's work, had removed
and placed elsewhere in the White House. During World War two,
President Franklin Roosevelt, who was fast sinated with insignia, asked
experts to redesign the presidential seal. They came up with

(04:05):
the idea of adding a ring of stars to represent
all the states, and having the eagle face the olive
branches rather than the arrows, to emphasize the desire for
peace rather than war. That design was the one that
Truman approved in and it's been used ever since. In
nineteen nineteen sixty, President Dwight Eisenhower updated it by adding

(04:25):
stars for Alaska and Hawaii. Today's episode was written by
Patrick J. Keiger and produced by Tyler Klang. Brain Stuff
is production of I Heeart Radio's how Stuff Works. For
more in this and lots of other official topics, visit
our home planet, how stuff Works dot com. And for
more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

(04:46):
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows