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The state seal of Mississippi, adopted in the 18th century as the seal of the Mississippi Territory, depicts a bald eagle holding arrows and an olive branch on a shield. The design is based on the Great Seal of the United States and may have been influenced by European heraldry and the Dutch Republic. The seal’s history extends beyond modern-day Mississippi, including Alabama.
The history of the state seal of Mississippi dates back to the 18th century. The image that would become the official seal was first chosen in the 18th when it was adopted as the seal of the Mississippi Territory. The territorial seal officially became the state seal of Mississippi when Mississippi gained statehood in 1798 and has kept the same design ever since. The image of the seal is even older and was probably influenced by sources that predate the existence of the state of Mississippi and the United States of America itself by centuries.
The state seal of Mississippi depicts a gold bald eagle on a white background. The eagle holds arrows in one of its talons and an olive branch in the other, representing war and peace. On the breast of the eagle is a shield, with a group of white stars on a blue field at the top of the shield and a series of red and white vertical stripes below it. The eagle is surrounded by a blue circle, with the words “The Great Seal of the State of Mississippi” wrapped around it in gold letters and surrounded by a second larger blue circle.
The history of the seal actually extends beyond the state of Mississippi as it exists today. At the time of the seal’s original adoption as the seal of Mississippi Territory, that territory’s boundaries included not only the modern state of Mississippi, but also Alabama. When Mississippi became a state in 1817, the territorial seal was adopted by the new state of Mississippi while the remainder of what had been Mississippi Territory was redesignated by Congress as the Territory of Alabama until the state of Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1819.
The main feature of the image, the bald eagle holding arrows and an olive branch in its talons and carrying a red, white and blue shield on its chest, is based on the similar eagle depicted on the Great Seal of the United States. The Seal of the United States, in which the eagle holds an olive branch and 13 arrows to represent the original 13 states, was adopted by Congress in 1782 after a series of committees spent six years considering various designs. Bald eagles holding arrows also appear on the state seals of New Mexico and Utah, and the seals of Illinois and Pennsylvania also depict an eagle holding up a shield.
The image of an eagle carrying a shield, or of an eagle or some other animal holding or standing near a cluster of arrows or an olive branch, goes back even further. An eagle supporting a shield appears in some continental European heraldry and coinage, although the use of a bald eagle, a species native to North America, was an innovation. The coat of arms of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands, commonly known simply as the Dutch Republic, depicted a lion holding a sword in its right forepaw and seven arrows, one for each of the seven provinces. The Dutch Republic was the world’s leading example of republican government formed through a confederation of individual states at the time of the adoption of the seal of the United States, and the Dutch constitution had an influence on the political thinking of many of America’s founders. Hence, this image may also have been an inspiration for the Great Seal of the United States and consequently the state seal of Mississippi.
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