Symbols
The symbols presented on the seal reflect things important to early Iowa settlers.
- Citizen soldier. The seal was approved during the Mexican-American War of 1846-1848, and the citizen soldier depicted with a "liberty cap" represents volunteer soldiers from Iowa. Battles of the Mexican-American war are also memorialized in several place names, including the counties of Buena Vista, Palo Alto and Cerro Gordo. As is traditional in official symbols, weapons are held in the soldier's left hand, and items of peace and freedom in the right.
- Liberty Cap. A "liberty cap", also called a Phrygian cap, is a brimless hat resembling a tall beret that is an ancient Greek symbol of freedom. However, the soldier on the seal typically wears a wide-brimmed hat that resembles a Civil War-era Cavalry hat. Most versions of the seal put the liberty cap on top of the flag staff, presumably because the artists felt the cap did not match the soldier's uniform, which typically resembles that of a Civil War Union soldier.
- Wheat. Early settlers in the 1840s primarily planted wheat, it was not until the introduction of the railroad in the 1850s and 1860s that corn became the primary crop of Iowa.
- Lead. Lead mining in the Dubuque region was an early economic force; no lead is mined in Iowa today. A "pig" is a large slab of lead shaped in a furnace mold with four corners that protrude slightly to facilitate handling; thought to resemble the animal pig.
- Steamer Iowa. The Steamboat Iowa was revered as one of the largest and fastest boats on the Mississippi; it set the speed record from Galena, Illinois to St. Louis in 1843, making the trip in 44 hours, a record that held until 1849. The Mississippi was the primary route of transportation in Iowa in the 1840s, and most large Iowa towns were on or near the Mississippi.
- Eagle. The federal Eagle was used in the earlier Seal of the Iowa Territory, and this symbol holding a banner with the motto of Iowa on it was incorporated into the Flag of Iowa.
Read more about this topic: Seal Of Iowa
Famous quotes containing the word symbols:
“There are those who would keep us slipping back into the darkness of division, into the snake pit of racial hatred, of racial antagonism and of support for symbols of the struggle to keep African-Americans in bondage.”
—Carol Moseley-Braun (b. 1947)
“Many older wealthy families have learned to instill a sense of public service in their offspring. But newly affluent middle-class parents have not acquired this skill. We are using our children as symbols of leisure-class standing without building in safeguards against an overweening sense of entitlement—a sense of entitlement that may incline some young people more toward the good life than toward the hard work that, for most of us, makes the good life possible.”
—David Elkind (20th century)
“That way of inspiration
is always open,
and open to everyone;
it acts as go-between, interpreter,
it explains symbols of the past
in to-day’s imagery.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)