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The Final Design of the Great Seal – June 20, 1782 On June 13, 1782, Congress asked Charles Thomson to come up with a suitable design for America's Great Seal. With the reports and drawings of the three committees before him, he set to work. Fifty-three at the time, Thomson had served the past eight years as Secretary of the Continental Congress where he acquired a reputation for fairness, truth, and integrity. Well-versed in the classics, he was once a Latin master at an academy in Philadelphia. Although today he is not a well-known founder, Charles Thomson was at the heart of the American Revolution. His story is a fascinating one. Thomson incorporated symbolic elements from all three committees with ideas of his own to create a bold and elegant design. He made a sketch and wrote a description of his design. For the front of the Great Seal, Thomson made an American bald eagle the centerpiece and placed the shield upon the eagle's breast. Thomson envisioned an eagle "on the wing and rising." In the eagle's right talon is an olive branch. In its left, a tightly drawn bundle of 13 arrows. Thomson said these symbols represent "the power of peace and war." In the eagle's beak, he placed a scroll with the first committee's motto: E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One). For the crest above the eagle's head, Thomson used the radiant constellation of thirteen stars suggested by the second committee. He described the light rays as "breaking through a cloud." For the reverse side of the Great Seal, Thomson used Barton's suggestion: an unfinished pyramid with the eye of Providence in its zenith, but added a triangle around the eye (like the first committee did). He also created two new mottoes: "Novus Ordo Seclorum" (A New Order of the Ages) and "Annuit Coeptis" (Providence has Favored Our Undertakings). After consulting with William Barton, the position of the eagle was changed to "displayed" (wings spread with tips up) and the chevrons on the shield were changed to the vertical stripes we see today. Thomson submitted this design to Congress on June 20, 1782, and the Great Seal was approved that same day. Thomson's final report consists of the official description of the design in heraldic terms (a blazon), plus his Remarks and Explanation. NOTE: Thomson did not include his sketch or any other artwork in his final report to Congress. The original Great Seal is that written description. The first die was cut three months later, and on September 16, 1782, the Great Seal was impressed on a document for the first time. (That die was the obverse, eagle side. A die for the reverse, pyramid side has never been created.) In 2004, GreatSeal.com commissioned wildlife artist Cy Hundley to create the first-ever realization of Thomson's design.

Historical content is based on the official history of the Great Seal.
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