Over the years , you ’ve probably noticed the emblememblazoned on the side of Air Force One . It also is tie to the podium from which the U.S. chair cave in speeches and seem on officialWhite Housestationery and invitations . Arailroad locomotivepainted to respect President George H.W. Bush is decorated with it . It ’s the Seal of the President of the United States of America , the official symbolic representation of the top federal agency in the land .
The presidential sealing wax is one of those familiar symbols you ’ve seen so often that you may never have bother to scrutinize it closely . But the symbolisation got a lot of care recently after President Donald Trump appeared at the conference of a conservative youthfulness constitution . As thisWashington Post articledetails , the seal projected on a screen behind Trump as he mouth was n’t the literal presidential seal . or else , it was aparody — plain downloaded from the internet by mistake — that thump fun at him by using a two-fold - headed eagle similar to Russia ’s pelage of arms , which clutched a handful of currency and a set of golf clubs alternatively of an olive offshoot and arrows in its claw .
President Trump is n’t the only commander - in - chief who ’s had a presidential sealskin bad luck . His predecessor , Barack Obama , was in the midst of deliver a voice communication in 2015 when the cachet became detach from the podium and crashed to the ground . " Was that my , uh … , " Obama said as he looked down at the fall seal , assume business organisation , to the crowd ’s laughter . " That ’s alright , " he deadpanned . " All of you know who I am . " ( Here ’s anAssociated Press videoof that here and now . )
The History and Elements of the Seal
The presidential sealskin looks interchangeable — with slight differences — to theGreat Seal of the United States , the official symbolic representation that ’s impressed upon prescribed documents such as treaties and commissions . The precise design of the presidential seal was detail inExecutive Order 9646 , issued in October 1945 by President Harry S. Truman . It specified that the cachet depict an American eagle that ’s retain an olive branch in its right talon and a bundle of 13 arrow to symbolize the original 13 states in its left over , while seize in its beak a whitened scroll inscribed with the catchword " E pluribus unum " ( Latin for " Out of many , one " ) .
Behind and above the eagle , there ’s a background of " radiating glory , " in the form of rays of light hybridise by an arc of 13 cloud blow , below which there ’s a constellation of mullets argent , or five - pointed reach stars . That image is surrounded by a ring of whitened lead symbolizing the current identification number of U.S. states , and around that another circle , with the substance " Seal of the President of the United States . "
Though the presidential cachet ’s precise origins are unclear , it was clearly inspired by the Great Seal . That internal symbolic representation was adopted by the Continental Congress in 1782 after Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson merged ideas from several committees into thissketch , which afterward was modified slightly by heraldist Thomas Barton . ( That ’s concord to the State Department ’s 1976official historyof the Great Seal , written by Richard S. Patterson and Richardson Dougall . )
But at some point , U.S. presidents resolve that , like theBritish monarch , they ask their own personal coat of arm as well . The Great Seal " was the official symbol of the United States federal governing , not the office of the presidency , " state Matthew Costello , senior historian for theWhite House Historical Associationand author of thisarticleon the history of the presidential seal , in an email . " As such , some presidents simply used the Great Seal , while others thought that the president should have their own decided Navy SEAL . "
As Costello details in his article , at least several presidents in the 1800s create their own seal , incorporate whatever flourishes appealed to them . James K. Polk , for case , used his own seal on theproclamation of war against Mexicoin 1846 . Millard Fillmore came up with his ownslightly different translation , which he sent to Maryland postmaster and engraver Edward Stabler to make in 1850 . Lincoln used a personalized Navy SEAL as well .
A presidential seal did n’t actually appear on an invitation to an issue until 1877 . consort to Patterson and Dougall , President Rutherford B. Hayes , who was host a dinner honoring Russian Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich , made the invites wait fancy by emblazoning them witha sealthat featured an arc of clouds , rays and stars between the bird of Jove ’s wingtips . But the Hayes eagle was tenuous and stunted than today ’s robust - look eagle , and its capitulum was turned toward the bundle of arrows , rather than the olive subdivision .
In 1902 , President Theodore Roosevelt ordered yet another presidential seal to be installed on the trading floor of the White HouseEntrance Hall , according to Costello ’s article . He commissioned a French - American sculptor , Philip Martiny , to create a new one . Martiny drew upon the Hayes purpose , but tally a few change , including engraving the phrase " The Seal of the President of the United States " in a circular border . ( Truman , who did n’t like Martiny ’s work , had it off and incite elsewhere in the White House . )
During World War II , President Franklin Roosevelt , who was fascinated with insignia , asked expert to redesign the presidential seal . They came up with the approximation of contribute a ring of wiz to make up all the states , and having the eagle face the Olea europaea branch , rather than the arrows , to emphasize the desire for public security rather than state of war , as this television from the Obama Administration ’s archives explain . That design was the one that Truman approved in 1945 , and it ’s been used ever since . In 1959 and 1960 , President Dwight Eisenhower update it by adding lead for Alaska and Hawaii .
