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Congratulations to the state seal of Minnesota for winning the American State Seal Wars!
It won against the seal of Montana with 66.9 percent of the vote. It is the most recently adopted state seal, being adopted in May of 2024. The seal features multiple state symbols, including a common loon, wild rice, the North Star, and the Dakota phrase “Mni Sóta Makoce.” The seal was designed by Ross Bruggink.
Stay tuned for the next Heraldry and Emblem Wars tournament!
Virginia state seal x New Jersey state seal yuri. I can ship anything.
Inspired by a VA<-->NJ love thread that popped up on r/virginia.
Great Seal of Louisiana. Bond certificate detail - 1960.
Which seal is better: Minnesota or Harp seal?
Minnesota
Harp seal
Heraldry and Emblem Wars Bonus Round
Happy Idaho Day!
To celebrate the creation of the Idaho Territory by President Lincoln on March 4th, 1863, we found the original sketch of the Idaho seal designed and adopted by the Territorial Governor Caleb Lyon.
According to this letter of authorization by Governor Lyon, the shield is “A view of the Shoshone River with the mountains of Owyhee at the left and distant view of the mountains of Pannack or Bannock on the right with a new moon in the sky and a steamer on the River.” The supporters are “Liberty with her sword at the right and Peace with her Palm branch on the left.” And the crest is “An Elk’s head to the neck with fall antlers.”
Lyon served as governor from 1864 to 1866 and appears to have been exceedingly unpopular. In 1942, when a rare book collector was trying to find a buyer for this sketch he wrote a letter to the editor of the Idaho Statesman. In response, Statesman Pioneer Editor Cedric G. D’Eusun relayed that Lyon is “known to most Idahoans as a fraud, a fake, and a deep-dyed carpetbagger.” He mentions that the Statesman which was founded in 1864 has been Lyon’s most consistent critic, and “When Caleb, ‘a barnacle on the lightship of progress’, adjourned himself under embarrassing circumstances between two days he took with him considerable funds which were never properly accounted for.” (MG 5634)
Despite the controversial governor, the state seal of Idaho today is remarkably similar to this original sketch. Have a very happy Idaho Day and enjoy this slightly scandalous seal post.
tl;dr: i had some issues with the seal of alabama so i made it better.
what actually happened was i fell down a rabbit hole of learning about the history of alabama, the seven years’ war (something i do know about, but only to the north!), and typography. and now i’m going to share it with all of you.
welcome to a canadian’s wild ride through through some of the history of some of the southern states.
COOL FACT #1: the great seal of the state of alabama uses times new roman.
i was like “wtf guys you couldn’t have tried AT ALL?” but then i looked up the history of TNR and it’s pretty cool! it goes all the way back to 1931, which was kind of a long time ago in internet terms, and was commissioned for the times — like The Times, the big british newspaper.
and then the seal of alabama was designed in 1939. i mean, this one:
but that’s kind of boring af, like really, guys? a map on your seal? that’s the best you could do?
COOL FACT #2, HOWEVER: the map motif is actually ALSO how their seals STARTED!
in the 18th and 19th centuries the area seemed to be a push-me-pull-you between spanish and british colonies. (what about the indigenous population, you might ask? history says “lol.” that’s an even bigger rabbit hole that i can’t go down right now, but some of it involves the yazoo tribe and a very sexy land scandal. it’s only sexy because the word “scandal” is sexy; there isn’t actually anything sexy about governors committing fraud, and ESPECIALLY not about the theft of indigenous lands in the first place. shame on your house, former congressman george matthews.)
in 1817, the territory was split when mississippi was welcomed as a state (happy birthday!!!) and alabama was left as a territory, about which it presumably felt like this:
now that alabama’s gotta strike out on its own without its west-side bro, it needs its own seal. the territory’s governor, cool-name-dude william wyatt bibb, made this!:
see? i told you. the map thing has a history. this seal shows the rivers that were apparently important resources, and it’s on a tree, and there’s a boat, and there’s a river. it’s quaint. there isn’t a motto or anything, which kind of bums me out, but i also think it’s pretty ballsy. “WE’LL PUT A MAP ON A TREE AND LET IT SPEAK FOR ITSELF,” bibb maybe said, and when people asked him “but what is it supposed to say?” he said, simply and proud, “ALABAMA.” and they were like
two years later, alabama becomes the 22nd state. bibb becomes the governor, probably because everybody loved his confident seal so much.
hop forward 50 years and alabama’s like “maaan we need a new seal. everybody else has these cool things like lasers and dinosaurs and all we have is a TREE.” so they get on adobe illustrator and say “FUCK THE TREES,” and “FUCK THE RIVERS,” and most importantly, “FUCK THE MAPS!” and, in 1868, they start using this doozy:
COOL FACT #3: i have no fucking idea what “here we rest” means.
i tried to look it up but all i got was an album by some country singer. (i don’t actually know if he’s a country singer but i’m only here to make wild accusations.)
and now this all brings us to 1939, when governor frank m. dixon (those governors, such movers and shakers!) wants to go vintage and get the map back on the seal. maybe he’s like “oh damn there’s a big war going on, let’s take Fighty the Eagle off so we look like less of a threat.” or something.
and that’s how alabama got the most boring state seal ever, which is literally a map. nothing else. just a map. of alabama. and some bits to tell us “hey, here’s where alabama isn’t.” not even a steamer or tree to be found. the corpse of a tree pinned to a living tree — that was kind of metal. but no, that’s too much, let’s scale it back.
they even made mississippi and florida the same colour and WHILE I MAY NOT BE A MAP-DOCTOR, i’m PRETTY SURE that’s a no-no because those are TWO DIFFERENT STATES. also, let’s make tennessee a darker shade of blue so people don’t mistake it for a body of water. top-notch effort, guys. really knocked it out of the park. it speaks to me.
the end.
COOL FACT #4 IS A SIDEBAR: georgia’s state seal was HIDDEN FOR A WHILE and they used a FAKE ONE in the late 19th century.
but this is me getting ahead of myself, and that’s a topic for another day. here’s the wikipedia link.
Which state seal is better: Virginia or Montana?
Virginia
Montana
American State Seal Wars: Round 4, Bracket 1
Which state seal is better: Montana or Minnesota?
Montana
Minnesota
American State Seal Wars: Finals
