Seal of California
Encyclopedia
The Great Seal of the State of California was adopted at the California
state
Constitutional Convention of 1849
and has undergone minor design changes since then, the last being the standardization of the seal in 1937. The seal features the Roman goddess Minerva
, the goddess of wisdom and war; a California grizzly bear
(the official state animal) feeding on grape
vines, representing California's wine
production; a sheaf of grain, representing agriculture
; a miner, representing the California Gold Rush
and the mining
industry; and sailing ships, representing the state's economic power. The phrase "Eureka
," meaning "I have found it!" is the California state motto. The original design of the seal was by U.S. Army Major Robert S. Garnett
and engraved by Albert Kuner
. However, because of the friction then in existence between the military and civil authorities, Garnett was unwilling to introduce the design to the constitutional convention, so convention clerk Caleb Lyon
introduced it as his own design, with Garnett's approval. Garnett later became the first general to be killed in the Civil War
, where he served as a Confederate
general.
. In fact, in a letter to Lyon dated two days before the seal was approved by the convention, Garnett described the landscape as a "view of the Bay of San Francisco and its vessels." In 1928, due to the number of incorrect details that had sneaked into the seal over the years (some pointed out as early as 1914), state printer Carroll H. Smith was authorized to prepare a new and correct seal. This seal was drawn by Los Angeles
heraldic artist Marc J. Rowe who, among other corrections, narrowed the growing break in the mountains so that it appeared to be the Sacramento River, "fringed by snow-capped Sierra, and not an arm of San Francisco Bay, as the old seal made it appear." San Franciscans considered this change to be "a slight on their city in favor of Los Angeles," despite the fact that Rowe's version was not at all to be interpreted as representing the City of Angels. His design was not adopted as the official seal, although it was used by the State Printing Office. However, just nine years later, the 1937 standardized seal once again featured a widened gap of Golden Gate
proportions, although it did keep Rowe's snow-capped Sierra Nevada that had replaced the barren foothills of previous editions of the seal. Both features remain to this day. The 1937 standardization came about when state employees, wishing to print the seal on blotters for the State Fair
, could not find any official design of the seal. This prompted a new law (Statutes of California
, 1937, chapter 380), which "established for the first time a definite pictured design with which the master die was 'substantially' to conform, and at the same time established the legality of all previous seals which were essentially the same as this one."
. The building, along with the break in the mountains, may have been added to give San Francisco Bay a stronger claim on its location being the landscape portrayed in the seal. This building first appeared in unofficial versions of the seal in the 1890s (and was, strangely enough, kept by Rowe in his 1928 Sacramento River interpretation), and in most of these, the building was clearly meant to represent Fort Point in San Francisco. However, the structure was given an apparent dome in the 1895 edition of the California Blue Book, and it was in this configuration that the building appeared in the 1937 standardization of the official seal. Fort Point has no dome, and it is unknown what building the 1895 artist was attempting to portray. In this same domed form, the structure was cast in bronze in the large seal at the west steps of the California State Capitol
in Sacramento
.
There is a widespread rumor that the building in this bronze version was meant to represent the chapel at San Quentin State Prison
, and was a "signature" of the prison inmates who cast it, as their alleged request to add their actual signatures was supposedly refused. Although this 3,400 pound, nearly ten foot wide seal was created in the foundry at San Quentin, the fact that the building had appeared in the seal more than fifty years before this seal's creation in 1952 (another, often told part of the rumor is that this seal was the first to include the building), and that no structure in this form had ever existed at the prison dismiss the rumor, which came into existence as early as 1968. The source of this story has yet to come to light. Whatever the building is, it is easily missed. Even the nearly exhaustive official color scheme for the seal (e.g., "the spear of Minerva shall be Oakwood, Cable No. 70094 and the tip white"), passed in 1967 -- thirty years after the structure was officially added -- failed to mention the building. Even today, some modern renditions of the seal do not include it.
(and its crossless view of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
). This county seal did in fact include a cross from its creation in 1957 until 2004, when a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union
encouraged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
to remove the cross and make other design changes to the seal. The mistaken idea that the cross was removed from the state seal quickly spread, appearing as far away as New Hampshire
even before the county seal had been officially changed.
passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution 131, authored by Dave Cox
. ACR 131 renamed part of Highway 50
in Sacramento County
in honor of multiethnic California pioneer William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr
. It read, in part: "WHEREAS, In 1847, William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. captained the first and only steamship in California prior to the Gold Rush of 1848
, the Sitka. His maiden steam voyage up the Sacramento River is immortalized on the California State Seal and recognizes his vision for increased maritime transportation of California's agricultural products to world markets." A vessel of thirty-seven feet length, nine feet breadth of beam, and eighteen inch draw, for her trial voyage on San Francisco Bay a very large passenger was repeatedly warned not to stir from his "post of honor immediately over the boiler," and on her only voyage to Sacramento in November/December 1847 it was reported that the baby of one of her passengers needed to be passed around to keep the "crank" vessel trim. Her career as a steam vessel was short-lived, however, as she sank at anchorage in February of the next year during a gale in San Francisco. "Thus perished the first steamer on the Bay, a mere toy, and a most dangerous one too," reported San Francisco's Californian
, "Should she be resuscitated by the owner we sincerely hope that none of our citizens will trust themselves with a passage in her beyond the 'flat' that she now rests upon." The pioneering and enterprising Leidesdorff did indeed have her raised and refitted as a schooner, the Rainbow, and she continued to run on the Sacramento River after the discovery of gold.
However, in his 2001 book, Maritime Tragedies on the Santa Barbara Channel
, Justin Ruhge suggested another possibility. The U.S.S. Edith
, a screw steamer
, was sent from San Francisco Bay to Santa Barbara
and San Diego in August 1849 to pick up the delegates for the upcoming constitutional convention. On the second day out, the Edith ran aground in a heavy fog at about 10 p.m. south of Point Sal, at the north end of what would become Vandenberg Air Force Base
. There was no loss of life and the captain and crew were later exonerated by a Court of Inquiry
, but the ship and her cargo had to be abandoned. Garnett, a passenger, was left in charge of the salvage efforts. Sam Pollard reported that "a few days after the wreck [Garnett] came to San Luis Obispo
and was my guest for two weeks .... and showed me the work he was doing on [the State Seal] in my store at San Luis Obispo." Ruhge concluded, "When Major Garnett laid out the seal, he included a number of sailing ships and on the middle left side of the seal he also drew in a steam bark
. It is likely that this is the U.S.S. Edith. The ship in the drawing is a steamer without side wheels. At that time only the U.S.S. Edith was such a ship. The only other steamer on the west coast at that time was the much larger steamer California
that was driven by side wheels." Leidesdorff's Sitka was a sidewheeler as well.
, which freed California from Mexican rule in 1846. This addition was objected to by native Californio
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
, former head of the Mexican military in California, but a friend of the United States. He introduced an amendment to remove the bear, or, if it were to remain, that it be held fast by a vaquero
's lasso. The amendment failed.
In February 1850, the Daily Alta California
of San Francisco accused Lyon of taking the $1000 appropriated to him by the convention for the purpose of securing a die and press, but giving a marred design, a die sunk too shallow, and an insufficiently powerful press for the job in return. The editorial continued that Lyon "received his money out of the civil fund, and is now conveying it to the sylvan retreats of Lyonsdale
" and quite vehemently stated that Lyon had "no right or title to the honor of either designing or executing the seal any more than the Kha[n] of Tartary" while still protecting the anonymity of Garnett.
Controversy arose again in 1899 with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
that claimed that Garnett's design was not original, but in fact based upon the seal of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
' California Lodge No. 1, with a few changes. This article was soon followed by a defense of the originality of the design written by Major Garnett's brother, Louis A. Garnett, who claimed that the timing of the creation of and differences between the two seals made it impossible for the state seal to have been based on the lodge seal. Despite this, the Grand Lodge of California continues to make this claim, and an I.O.O.F. historian has suggested that perhaps Garnett in fact designed both seals.
In 1994, after seeing Minerva and Medusa
on the large seal at the west steps of the State Capitol, Pastor Margo Brown called it "an affront to women and Christian faith." "I was shocked and amazed to see a woman [Minerva] in a man's uniform," the Sacramento Bee reported her saying, "And there was a picture of Medusa with snakes on her head. I'm very proud of my gender and women need to be portrayed in a better light." She lead a crusade at the Capitol to call for a redesign of the seal, but the seal remains unchanged.
In 2001, the Oakland Tribune printed a letter to the editor with a light-hearted suggestion of new imagery for the seal. The writer proposed replacing the sailing ships with Japanese car carriers, the wheat and grape vine with Central Valley subdivisions, obscuring the Sierra Nevada with smog
, and giving California a new motto more appropriate for the time: "I have lost it."
), State Personnel Board
(801 Capitol Mall), Employment Development Department
(722/800 Capitol Mall), Resources Agency (1416 Ninth Street), Secretary of State
(1500 Eleventh Street), and CalTrans
(1121 O Street). It can also be seen in San Francisco on the second floor of the Ferry Building (opened in 1898) and at the California Public Utilities Commission
(505 Van Ness Avenue). The 1894 James Lick
Pioneer Monument at the San Francisco Civic Center features a seal where Minerva and the bear have "escaped" the seal and are sculpted in the round, leaving the remaining elements on Minerva's shield in the space normally occupied only by the face of Medusa. Other seals can be found at the San Mateo County
History Museum in Redwood City
(a mosaic dating to 1910), the Circle of Palms Plaza
in San Jose
, the site of California's first state capitol, and in front of Colton Hall
in Monterey
, the site of the 1849 Constitutional Convention. A large bronze seal, installed in 1939, was for many years located in front of the First Street entrance to the old State Building in Los Angeles until the structure was torn down in the 1970s. Above the bench in Courtroom #1 of the San Diego Superior Court
hangs a stained glass seal. This was one of forty-two state seals created in 1889 (one for each state then in the Union) by artist John Mallon for the courthouse at the time and saved from oblivion in 1978 by civic-minded San Diegans (the courthouse had been torn down in 1959, and the seals placed in storage). The historic Decatur House
in Washington, D.C.
, once owned by prominent Californian Edward Fitzgerald Beale
, features a seal, installed by Beale soon after he bought the house in 1871, made of twenty-two woods native to California.
In 1862, the California Legislature created the California State Normal School
(now San Jose State University
), and bestowed its Great Seal upon the school, as shown at right. Although the University's version of the Seal still graces its Tower Hall and several other buildings on the San Jose State campus, its fate as the school's official Seal is unclear. In recent years the school has also used a different seal depicting its Tower Hall building. The city of Eureka, California
, uses the same seal, being the only U.S. location to use the state seal as its seal; Minerva and the bear appear on the seal of the city of Long Beach
. The Governor's Flag features a modified seal at its center. The California Highway Patrol
uses a modified state seal on its patch, replacing the wheat and grape vine with a cactus and adding a setting sun, and a seal as part of its shield that is nearly identical to the actual seal.
As the "signature" of California, the seal has also been used for less-than-solemn purposes, including poking fun at the state's problems. Ross Mayfield, political cartoonist of the Santa Maria Sun, lampooned California's economic situation with his "The New State Seal for the Great Bankrupt State of California" cartoon, which portrayed a worried Minerva holding signs that read "Send Money" and "Need Cash," the miner in his (literal and figurative) hole with a "We're In Too Deep" sign, and the ships flying "Bail Us Out" and "We're Sinking" banners. A version of the seal with Conan the Barbarian in the place of Minerva and California spelled phonetically as 'Kahlifoania' made the rounds soon after Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger
was elected governor in 2003.
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
Constitutional Convention of 1849
California Constitution
The document that establishes and describes the duties, powers, structure and function of the government of the U.S. state of California. The original constitution, adopted in November 1849 in advance of California attaining U.S. statehood in 1850, was superseded by the current constitution, which...
and has undergone minor design changes since then, the last being the standardization of the seal in 1937. The seal features the Roman goddess Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
, the goddess of wisdom and war; a California grizzly bear
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
(the official state animal) feeding on grape
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
vines, representing California's wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
production; a sheaf of grain, representing agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
; a miner, representing the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
and the mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
industry; and sailing ships, representing the state's economic power. The phrase "Eureka
Eureka (word)
"Eureka" is an interjection used to celebrate a discovery, a transliteration of a word attributed to Archimedes.-Etymology:The word comes from ancient Greek εὕρηκα heúrēka "I have found ", which is the 1st person singular perfect indicative active of the verb heuriskō "I find"...
," meaning "I have found it!" is the California state motto. The original design of the seal was by U.S. Army Major Robert S. Garnett
Robert S. Garnett
Robert Selden Garnett was a career military officer, serving in the United States Army until the American Civil War, when he became a Confederate States Army brigadier general. He was the first general officer killed in the Civil War.-Early life and career:Garnett was born at the family plantation...
and engraved by Albert Kuner
Albert Kuner
Georg Albrecht Ferdinand Kuner was the engraver of California's State Seal, which was designed by Robert S. Garnett...
. However, because of the friction then in existence between the military and civil authorities, Garnett was unwilling to introduce the design to the constitutional convention, so convention clerk Caleb Lyon
Caleb Lyon
Caleb Lyon was governor of Idaho Territory from 1864 to 1865 during the last half of the American Civil War....
introduced it as his own design, with Garnett's approval. Garnett later became the first general to be killed in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, where he served as a Confederate
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
general.
Original 1849 Description
What Is the Great Seal?
The Geography of the Seal
The geography is not an exact view from any one place in California, although the waters were described in 1849 as being "of the Sacramento" and the mountains in the background as being "the snow-clad peaks of the Sierra Nevada." Other, very early descriptions referred to the body of water as San Francisco BaySan Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. In fact, in a letter to Lyon dated two days before the seal was approved by the convention, Garnett described the landscape as a "view of the Bay of San Francisco and its vessels." In 1928, due to the number of incorrect details that had sneaked into the seal over the years (some pointed out as early as 1914), state printer Carroll H. Smith was authorized to prepare a new and correct seal. This seal was drawn by Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
heraldic artist Marc J. Rowe who, among other corrections, narrowed the growing break in the mountains so that it appeared to be the Sacramento River, "fringed by snow-capped Sierra, and not an arm of San Francisco Bay, as the old seal made it appear." San Franciscans considered this change to be "a slight on their city in favor of Los Angeles," despite the fact that Rowe's version was not at all to be interpreted as representing the City of Angels. His design was not adopted as the official seal, although it was used by the State Printing Office. However, just nine years later, the 1937 standardized seal once again featured a widened gap of Golden Gate
Golden Gate
The Golden Gate is the North American strait connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. Since 1937 it has been spanned by the Golden Gate Bridge...
proportions, although it did keep Rowe's snow-capped Sierra Nevada that had replaced the barren foothills of previous editions of the seal. Both features remain to this day. The 1937 standardization came about when state employees, wishing to print the seal on blotters for the State Fair
California State Fair
The California State Fair is the annual state fair for the state of California. The fair is held at Cal Expo in Sacramento, California.- Schedule Change :...
, could not find any official design of the seal. This prompted a new law (Statutes of California
California Statutes
California Statutes are the acts of the California State Legislature as approved according to the California Constitution and collated by the Secretary of State of California....
, 1937, chapter 380), which "established for the first time a definite pictured design with which the master die was 'substantially' to conform, and at the same time established the legality of all previous seals which were essentially the same as this one."
The Mysterious Building
Also in the 1937 seal there is a building on the far left rear hill that could be interpreted as representing the state capitol of which there have been several or as a Spanish missionSpanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...
. The building, along with the break in the mountains, may have been added to give San Francisco Bay a stronger claim on its location being the landscape portrayed in the seal. This building first appeared in unofficial versions of the seal in the 1890s (and was, strangely enough, kept by Rowe in his 1928 Sacramento River interpretation), and in most of these, the building was clearly meant to represent Fort Point in San Francisco. However, the structure was given an apparent dome in the 1895 edition of the California Blue Book, and it was in this configuration that the building appeared in the 1937 standardization of the official seal. Fort Point has no dome, and it is unknown what building the 1895 artist was attempting to portray. In this same domed form, the structure was cast in bronze in the large seal at the west steps of the California State Capitol
California State Capitol
The California State Capitol is home to the government of California. The building houses the bicameral state legislature and the office of the governor....
in Sacramento
Sacramento, California
Sacramento is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat of Sacramento County. It is located at the confluence of the Sacramento River and the American River in the northern portion of California's expansive Central Valley. With a population of 466,488 at the 2010 census,...
.
There is a widespread rumor that the building in this bronze version was meant to represent the chapel at San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison
San Quentin State Prison is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men in unincorporated San Quentin, Marin County, California, United States. Opened in July 1852, it is the oldest prison in the state. California's only death row for male inmates, the largest...
, and was a "signature" of the prison inmates who cast it, as their alleged request to add their actual signatures was supposedly refused. Although this 3,400 pound, nearly ten foot wide seal was created in the foundry at San Quentin, the fact that the building had appeared in the seal more than fifty years before this seal's creation in 1952 (another, often told part of the rumor is that this seal was the first to include the building), and that no structure in this form had ever existed at the prison dismiss the rumor, which came into existence as early as 1968. The source of this story has yet to come to light. Whatever the building is, it is easily missed. Even the nearly exhaustive official color scheme for the seal (e.g., "the spear of Minerva shall be Oakwood, Cable No. 70094 and the tip white"), passed in 1967 -- thirty years after the structure was officially added -- failed to mention the building. Even today, some modern renditions of the seal do not include it.
The Missing Cross?
Another rumor associated with the Great Seal of the State of California is that it once featured a cross, but that it had since been removed. The source of this story is most likely a confusion of the state seal (with its supposed chapel) with the Seal of Los Angeles County, CaliforniaSeal of Los Angeles County, California
The official seal of Los Angeles County, California, has changed twice since its first inception in 1887.The current seal portrays an image of a Native American woman, representing the early inhabitants of the Los Angeles Basin, surrounded by six smaller iconic images, with three on each side...
(and its crossless view of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish...
). This county seal did in fact include a cross from its creation in 1957 until 2004, when a threatened lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
encouraged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is the five-member nonpartisan governing board of Los Angeles County, California. Members of the board of supervisors are elected by district. They were as of December 2, 2008:*District 1: Gloria Molina...
to remove the cross and make other design changes to the seal. The mistaken idea that the cross was removed from the state seal quickly spread, appearing as far away as New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
even before the county seal had been officially changed.
The Steam Vessel
In 2004, the California State LegislatureCalifornia State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
passed Assembly Concurrent Resolution 131, authored by Dave Cox
Dave Cox
David E. Cox was an American politician from Holdenville, Oklahoma. A Republican, he served as a California State Senator, representing the 1st district from December 2004 until his death in July 2010, and also served as an California State Assemblyman for the six years immediately before his...
. ACR 131 renamed part of Highway 50
U.S. Route 50
U.S. Route 50 is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching just over from Ocean City, Maryland on the Atlantic Ocean to West Sacramento, California. Until 1972, when it was replaced by Interstate Highways west of the Sacramento area, it extended to San Francisco, near...
in Sacramento County
Sacramento County, California
Sacramento County is a county in the U.S. state of California. Its county seat is Sacramento, which is also the state capital. As of 2010 the county had a population of 1,418,788....
in honor of multiethnic California pioneer William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr
William Leidesdorff
William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. was one of the earliest mixed-race U.S. citizens in California and a highly successful, enterprising businessman. He was a West Indian immigrant of African Cuban, possibly Carib, Danish and Jewish ancestry. William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. became a United...
. It read, in part: "WHEREAS, In 1847, William Alexander Leidesdorff, Jr. captained the first and only steamship in California prior to the Gold Rush of 1848
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
, the Sitka. His maiden steam voyage up the Sacramento River is immortalized on the California State Seal and recognizes his vision for increased maritime transportation of California's agricultural products to world markets." A vessel of thirty-seven feet length, nine feet breadth of beam, and eighteen inch draw, for her trial voyage on San Francisco Bay a very large passenger was repeatedly warned not to stir from his "post of honor immediately over the boiler," and on her only voyage to Sacramento in November/December 1847 it was reported that the baby of one of her passengers needed to be passed around to keep the "crank" vessel trim. Her career as a steam vessel was short-lived, however, as she sank at anchorage in February of the next year during a gale in San Francisco. "Thus perished the first steamer on the Bay, a mere toy, and a most dangerous one too," reported San Francisco's Californian
The Californian (1840s newspaper)
The Californian was the first California newspaper.The Californian was first published in Monterey, California on August 15, 1846, by Alcalde Walter Colton and his friend Robert B. Semple, from a well-used Ramage printing press that Agustín V. Zamorano brought from Hawaii to Monterey in 1834....
, "Should she be resuscitated by the owner we sincerely hope that none of our citizens will trust themselves with a passage in her beyond the 'flat' that she now rests upon." The pioneering and enterprising Leidesdorff did indeed have her raised and refitted as a schooner, the Rainbow, and she continued to run on the Sacramento River after the discovery of gold.
However, in his 2001 book, Maritime Tragedies on the Santa Barbara Channel
Santa Barbara Channel
The Santa Barbara Channel is a portion of the Pacific Ocean which separates the mainland of California from the northern Channel Islands. It is generally south of the city of Santa Barbara, and west of the city of Ventura....
, Justin Ruhge suggested another possibility. The U.S.S. Edith
USS Edith (1849)
USS Edith, a screw steamer, was transferred from the War Department to the U.S. Navy under congressional legislation of 3 March 1849, and turned over to Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Squadron, at San Francisco, California...
, a screw steamer
Screw steamer
A screw steamer or screw steamship is a steamship or steamboat, powered by a steam engine, using one or more propellors, also known as screws, to propel it through the water....
, was sent from San Francisco Bay to Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
and San Diego in August 1849 to pick up the delegates for the upcoming constitutional convention. On the second day out, the Edith ran aground in a heavy fog at about 10 p.m. south of Point Sal, at the north end of what would become Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base
Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....
. There was no loss of life and the captain and crew were later exonerated by a Court of Inquiry
Naval Board of Inquiry
A Naval Board of Inquiry is a type of investigative court proceeding conducted by the United States Navy after the occurrence of an unanticipated event that adversely affects the performance, or reputation, of the fleet or one of its ships or stations.- Convening the board :Depending on the...
, but the ship and her cargo had to be abandoned. Garnett, a passenger, was left in charge of the salvage efforts. Sam Pollard reported that "a few days after the wreck [Garnett] came to San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, California
San Luis Obispo is a city in California, located roughly midway between San Francisco and Los Angeles on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772 by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities...
and was my guest for two weeks .... and showed me the work he was doing on [the State Seal] in my store at San Luis Obispo." Ruhge concluded, "When Major Garnett laid out the seal, he included a number of sailing ships and on the middle left side of the seal he also drew in a steam bark
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
. It is likely that this is the U.S.S. Edith. The ship in the drawing is a steamer without side wheels. At that time only the U.S.S. Edith was such a ship. The only other steamer on the west coast at that time was the much larger steamer California
SS California (1848)
The SS California was one of the first steamships, to steam in the Pacific Ocean and the first steamship to travel from Central America to North America. She was built for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company which was founded April 18, 1848 as a joint stock company in the State of New York by a...
that was driven by side wheels." Leidesdorff's Sitka was a sidewheeler as well.
Controversies and Other Issues
Controversy was attached to the seal from the beginning. During the 1849 Constitutional Convention debate on the design of the seal, the bear was added to satisfy Major J.R. Snyder and the men of the Bear Flag RevoltCalifornia Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
, which freed California from Mexican rule in 1846. This addition was objected to by native Californio
Californio
Californio is a term used to identify a Spanish-speaking Catholic people, regardless of race, born in California before 1848...
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californian military commander, politician, and rancher. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of Mexico, and shaped the transition of California from a Mexican district to an American state...
, former head of the Mexican military in California, but a friend of the United States. He introduced an amendment to remove the bear, or, if it were to remain, that it be held fast by a vaquero
Vaquero
The vaquero is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that originated on the Iberian peninsula. Today the vaquero is still a part of the doma vaquera, the Spanish tradition of working riding...
's lasso. The amendment failed.
In February 1850, the Daily Alta California
The Daily Alta California
The Alta California or Daily Alta California was a 19th-century San Francisco newspaper...
of San Francisco accused Lyon of taking the $1000 appropriated to him by the convention for the purpose of securing a die and press, but giving a marred design, a die sunk too shallow, and an insufficiently powerful press for the job in return. The editorial continued that Lyon "received his money out of the civil fund, and is now conveying it to the sylvan retreats of Lyonsdale
Lyonsdale, New York
Lyonsdale is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 1,273 at the 2000 census. The town is named after its principal community and its founder Caleb Lyon....
" and quite vehemently stated that Lyon had "no right or title to the honor of either designing or executing the seal any more than the Kha[n] of Tartary" while still protecting the anonymity of Garnett.
Controversy arose again in 1899 with an article in the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
that claimed that Garnett's design was not original, but in fact based upon the seal of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows
Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows , also known as the Three Link Fraternity, is an altruistic and benevolent fraternal organization derived from the similar British Oddfellows service organizations which came into being during the 18th century, at a time when altruistic and charitable acts were...
' California Lodge No. 1, with a few changes. This article was soon followed by a defense of the originality of the design written by Major Garnett's brother, Louis A. Garnett, who claimed that the timing of the creation of and differences between the two seals made it impossible for the state seal to have been based on the lodge seal. Despite this, the Grand Lodge of California continues to make this claim, and an I.O.O.F. historian has suggested that perhaps Garnett in fact designed both seals.
In 1994, after seeing Minerva and Medusa
Medusa
In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...
on the large seal at the west steps of the State Capitol, Pastor Margo Brown called it "an affront to women and Christian faith." "I was shocked and amazed to see a woman [Minerva] in a man's uniform," the Sacramento Bee reported her saying, "And there was a picture of Medusa with snakes on her head. I'm very proud of my gender and women need to be portrayed in a better light." She lead a crusade at the Capitol to call for a redesign of the seal, but the seal remains unchanged.
In 2001, the Oakland Tribune printed a letter to the editor with a light-hearted suggestion of new imagery for the seal. The writer proposed replacing the sailing ships with Japanese car carriers, the wheat and grape vine with Central Valley subdivisions, obscuring the Sierra Nevada with smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
, and giving California a new motto more appropriate for the time: "I have lost it."
Examples of the Seal
The seal can be seen in its various incarnations at the entrances of a number of state buildings in downtown Sacramento, including the State Capitol (both west and east entrances, as well as several inside, including an 1854 carving and a 1907 stained glass "sky" light), Department of Rehabilitation (721 Capitol Mall, not to be confused the Department of Corrections and RehabilitationCalifornia Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is responsible for the operation of the California state prison and parole systems. CDC&R is the second largest law enforcement or police agency in the United States behind the New York City Police Department which employs approximately...
), State Personnel Board
California State Personnel Board
The California State Personnel Board is one of the California agencies responsible for administration of the merit-based civil service employment system for California state agencies, the other being the California Department of Personnel Administration. The board administers selections for state...
(801 Capitol Mall), Employment Development Department
Employment Development Department
The Employment Development Department is part of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency of the executive branch of the State of California. EDD offers a variety of services to millions of Californians under the Job Service, Unemployment Insurance, Disability Insurance, Workforce Investment,...
(722/800 Capitol Mall), Resources Agency (1416 Ninth Street), Secretary of State
California Secretary of State
The Secretary of State of California is the chief elections officer of that U.S. state. The Secretary of State is also responsible for the California State Archives, as well as chartering corporations. The Secretary of State is elected to four year terms, concurrent with the other constitutional...
(1500 Eleventh Street), and CalTrans
California Department of Transportation
The California Department of Transportation is a government department in the U.S. state of California. Its mission is to improve mobility across the state. It manages the state highway system and is actively involved with public transportation systems throughout the state...
(1121 O Street). It can also be seen in San Francisco on the second floor of the Ferry Building (opened in 1898) and at the California Public Utilities Commission
California Public Utilities Commission
The California Public Utilities Commission is a regulatory agency which regulates privately owned public utilities in the state of California, including electric power, telecommunications, natural gas and water companies...
(505 Van Ness Avenue). The 1894 James Lick
James Lick
James Lick was an American carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest man in California, and left the majority of his estate to social and scientific causes.-Early years:James Lick was born in Stumpstown Pennsylvania on August...
Pioneer Monument at the San Francisco Civic Center features a seal where Minerva and the bear have "escaped" the seal and are sculpted in the round, leaving the remaining elements on Minerva's shield in the space normally occupied only by the face of Medusa. Other seals can be found at the San Mateo County
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...
History Museum in Redwood City
Redwood City, California
Redwood City is a California charter city located on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California, approximately 27 miles south of San Francisco, and 24 miles north of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans from its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people, to its tradition as a port for...
(a mosaic dating to 1910), the Circle of Palms Plaza
Circle of Palms Plaza
The Circle of Palms Plaza is located in downtown San Jose, California. It is the location of California Historical Marker 461, the site of California's first state capital from 1849-1851...
in San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
, the site of California's first state capitol, and in front of Colton Hall
Colton Hall
Colton Hall, located in Monterey, California, was built in the 1840s by Walter Colton, who came to Monterey as a chaplain on Commodore Stockton's vessel and remained to become Monterey's first alcalde in the American Period....
in Monterey
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
, the site of the 1849 Constitutional Convention. A large bronze seal, installed in 1939, was for many years located in front of the First Street entrance to the old State Building in Los Angeles until the structure was torn down in the 1970s. Above the bench in Courtroom #1 of the San Diego Superior Court
Superior Courts of California
The Superior Courts of California are the superior courts in the U.S. state of California with general jurisdiction to hear and decide any civil or criminal action which is not specially designated to be heard in some other court or before a government agency...
hangs a stained glass seal. This was one of forty-two state seals created in 1889 (one for each state then in the Union) by artist John Mallon for the courthouse at the time and saved from oblivion in 1978 by civic-minded San Diegans (the courthouse had been torn down in 1959, and the seals placed in storage). The historic Decatur House
Decatur House
Decatur House is a historic home in Washington, D.C., named after its first owner and occupant Stephen Decatur. The house is located northwest of Lafayette Square, at the southwest corner of Jackson Place and H Street, near the White House...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, once owned by prominent Californian Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale was a national figure in 19th century America. He was naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, diplomat, and friend of Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant...
, features a seal, installed by Beale soon after he bought the house in 1871, made of twenty-two woods native to California.
Other Uses of the Seal
California State Normal School
The California State Normal School was a teaching college founded on May 2, 1862, whose original campus later became both the California State University and its San Jose State University campus....
(now San Jose State University
San José State University
San Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States...
), and bestowed its Great Seal upon the school, as shown at right. Although the University's version of the Seal still graces its Tower Hall and several other buildings on the San Jose State campus, its fate as the school's official Seal is unclear. In recent years the school has also used a different seal depicting its Tower Hall building. The city of Eureka, California
Eureka, California
Eureka is the principal city and the county seat of Humboldt County, California, United States. Its population was 27,191 at the 2010 census, up from 26,128 at the 2000 census....
, uses the same seal, being the only U.S. location to use the state seal as its seal; Minerva and the bear appear on the seal of the city of Long Beach
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
. The Governor's Flag features a modified seal at its center. The California Highway Patrol
California Highway Patrol
The California Highway Patrol is a law enforcement agency of the U.S. state of California. The CHP has patrol jurisdiction over all California highways and also acts as the state police....
uses a modified state seal on its patch, replacing the wheat and grape vine with a cactus and adding a setting sun, and a seal as part of its shield that is nearly identical to the actual seal.
As the "signature" of California, the seal has also been used for less-than-solemn purposes, including poking fun at the state's problems. Ross Mayfield, political cartoonist of the Santa Maria Sun, lampooned California's economic situation with his "The New State Seal for the Great Bankrupt State of California" cartoon, which portrayed a worried Minerva holding signs that read "Send Money" and "Need Cash," the miner in his (literal and figurative) hole with a "We're In Too Deep" sign, and the ships flying "Bail Us Out" and "We're Sinking" banners. A version of the seal with Conan the Barbarian in the place of Minerva and California spelled phonetically as 'Kahlifoania' made the rounds soon after Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
was elected governor in 2003.
External links
- Learn California.org: Two Seals to Compare -- 1849 vs. 1937 Seals
- California State Capitol Museum: California's Great Seal
- Netstate.com: The Great Seal of California
- Moraga Historical Society: Reprint of the article on the Great Seal of California as it appeared in the 1909 edition of the California Blue Book