The Great Seal of the United States appears on official documents, including presidential proclamations and diplomatic instruments. Its bald eagle, shield, olive branch, arrows, pyramid, and Latin mottos are familiar symbols. But the details are often misunderstood, particularly the unfinished pyramid and the eye above it.
The design was approved by the Continental Congress on June 20, 1782, after nearly six years of proposals and revisions. It is a national emblem, not the flag of the United States, and its reverse design is most familiar today from the back of the one-dollar bill.
Why the new United States needed a seal
After independence, the Continental Congress needed an official emblem to authenticate acts of government and represent the new union. On July 4, 1776, the same day it adopted the Declaration of Independence, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to a committee charged with proposing a seal. Their initial suggestions were not adopted as a complete design. Later committees and advisers contributed additional ideas, and Congress eventually approved a final design assembled by its secretary, Charles Thomson, with heraldic refinements from William Barton.
The Great Seal therefore cannot accurately be attributed to one founding father. Its final form was the product of several committees, advisers, and congressional approval.
The front: an eagle, shield, and the choice between peace and war
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The front, or obverse, features an American bald eagle with its wings displayed. On its breast is a shield with thirteen vertical stripes and a blue chief. The eagle holds an olive branch in its right talon and a bundle of thirteen arrows in its left. A scroll in its beak reads E Pluribus Unum, commonly translated as “Out of Many, One.” Above the eagle is a constellation of thirteen stars.
The number thirteen refers to the original states. The olive branch represents peace; the arrows represent war or the ability to defend the country. The eagle faces the olive branch in the official design. That arrangement expresses a preference for peace while acknowledging the need for national defense. It does not mean the nation was permanently at peace, nor that a later artistic variation can change the seal’s constitutional meaning.
The shield’s stripes stand for the states joined in support of a national government, while the blue upper portion represents Congress as the unifying authority in the original explanation. The symbolism comes from Charles Thomson’s 1782 report, which remains one of the most direct primary sources for interpreting the adopted design.
The reverse: an unfinished pyramid and the Eye of Providence
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The reverse depicts an unfinished pyramid of thirteen levels. Thomson’s official explanation described the pyramid as signifying strength and duration. The unfinished appearance is often interpreted as suggesting a nation still under construction; that interpretation is consistent with the image, but Thomson’s surviving explanation specifically emphasizes strength and duration rather than prescribing every modern interpretation of the unfinished top.
Above the pyramid is an eye within a triangle, surrounded by rays. This is the Eye of Providence, a symbol of divine watchfulness that appeared in European and American religious and artistic traditions long before the modern conspiracy theories sometimes attached to it. The official 1782 explanation connects the eye and motto to Providence favoring the American cause.
Below the pyramid is the Roman numeral MDCCLXXVI, meaning 1776, the year of the Declaration of Independence. It is not the date of the seal’s adoption, which occurred in 1782.
What do the three Latin mottos mean?
E Pluribus Unum appears on the eagle’s scroll. It means “Out of Many, One” and refers to unity formed from separate states. It is a longstanding national motto, but the United States’ statutory national motto today is In God We Trust, established by Congress in 1956. The two should not be confused.
Annuit Coeptis, above the eye on the reverse, is commonly translated as “He [Providence] has favored our undertakings.” Latin translations can vary slightly depending on how the implied subject is supplied, but the official historical explanation clearly connects it to divine favor for the American undertaking.
Novus Ordo Seclorum, below the pyramid, is commonly rendered “A new order of the ages.” In the context of the seal’s creation, it refers to the beginning of a new American era. It does not literally say “New World Order,” despite that common online claim. Thomson’s explanation tied the phrase to the new American era beginning in 1776.
Is the Great Seal connected to Freemasonry?
Claims about Masonic influence often focus on the eye and pyramid. The symbols have broader histories, however, and resemblance alone is not proof that the Great Seal was designed as a secret Masonic message. The U.S. Department of State’s official history of the seal explains its committee development and the adopted symbolism. Historians distinguish the documented designers’ stated meanings from later associations that cannot be demonstrated from the 1782 records.
Some founding-era figures belonged to fraternal organizations, and symbols could circulate across religious, artistic, and civic contexts. That does not establish that every symbol in the seal originated in or was intended to communicate a fraternal doctrine. The responsible historical approach is to begin with the design proposals and the official report, then separate documented facts from later speculation.
Why is the reverse on the one-dollar bill?
The Great Seal’s two sides were approved in 1782, but the reverse was not traditionally used as the physical die for sealing documents. Both sides became familiar to the general public when they were placed on the back of the one-dollar Federal Reserve note beginning with the 1935 series. On the note, the reverse appears to the left and the obverse to the right.
The currency’s use of the seal is not evidence that the symbols were invented in the twentieth century: the designs and Latin mottos date to the eighteenth-century adoption. The 1935 decision changed how frequently Americans encountered them.
The Great Seal, the presidential seal, and the flag are different
The Great Seal is the national government’s formal emblem and has specific official uses. The presidential seal is a related but distinct emblem associated with the presidency. The American flag is a separate national symbol with its own history and legal standards. Although they share stars, stripes, and eagle imagery, they should not be treated as interchangeable objects.
For a different American symbol with a separate history, read No Step On Snek’s history of the Gadsden flag and “Don’t Tread on Me.” That article concerns a Revolutionary-era political symbol, not an official national seal.
What the evidence establishes—and what remains interpretation
Documented: Congress adopted the Great Seal on June 20, 1782. Its official explanation identifies the eagle, shield, thirteen arrows and stars, pyramid, eye, date 1776, and three Latin mottos. The reverse appeared on the one-dollar bill beginning with the 1935 series.
Interpretive: The precise philosophical implications people draw from the eye, unfinished pyramid, or mottos can differ. Claims of hidden codes should be evaluated against contemporary documentary evidence, not merely visual resemblance or modern internet retellings.
The Great Seal is best understood as a carefully assembled statement about national unity, independence, endurance, peace, defense, and the founding generation’s understanding of Providence. Understanding the documented symbolism makes it easier to appreciate the emblem without either romanticizing it or inventing unsupported secret meanings.
Sources and further reading
- U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian — The Great Seal of the United States.
- National Museum of American Diplomacy — What Is the Great Seal of the United States?.
- National Archives — Great Seal of the United States.
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing — Historical Currency.
- Public Law 84-851 (1956) — National Motto.
- Wikimedia Commons — Great Seal obverse, image record.
- Wikimedia Commons — Great Seal reverse, image record.