Kansas’ state motto, “Ad astra per aspera,” means “to the stars through hardship” and reflects the state’s hardworking spirit. It was created by John J. Ingalls, a Massachusetts antislavery activist, and appears on the state’s great seal alongside other symbols of Kansas’ history. The phrase has origins in Roman poetry and has been used as a motto by various organizations, including the Royal Air Force.
“Ad astra per aspera” is the state motto of Kansas. This Latin phrase means “to the stars through hardship” and represents the aspirations and hardworking spirit of the state. It also refers to the history of pro- and anti-slavery factional violence in Kansas in the late 1850s and early 1860s. The Kansas state motto is part of the state’s great seal; the state adopted both at the same time.
Kansas became the 34th state in the union in January 1861. Every state in the union has both a state seal and a state motto. As a result, the state brought with it a request for symbols to represent Kansas. Both the Great Seal and the Kansas state motto were the work of John J. Ingalls. Ingalls, state senator for the city of Atchison, was a native and prominent Massachusetts antislavery activist who played a prominent role in the path to Kansas statehood.
The Kansas state motto appears written on a scroll at the top of the state’s great seal, along with a number of other symbols relating to the state’s history. 34 stars fill the sky below the motto, referring to Kansas’ position as the 34th state. Below them, the seal depicts a variety of scenes from Kansas life, including a settler plowing the land, a westbound wagon train, a steamboat on a river, and Native Americans hunting buffalo. An inscription on the edge of the seal indicates the date of Kansas’s entry into the United States.
The phrase “ad astra per aspera” is not original to Ingalls. The expression “ad astra”, which means “towards the stars”, probably originates from the Roman poet Virgil, who used the phrase in his Aeneid. Its earliest use as a motto may be at Dr Challoner’s Grammar School, a 17th-century English school, although the exact date of the motto is uncertain. “Per aspera ad astra,” which has an identical meaning, is another common version of this phrase. It appears as the motto of the Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
“Per ardua ad astra” is a Latin phrase with a similar meaning to the Kansas state motto. It is the motto of at least one prominent family and, perhaps through the influence of author H. Rider Haggard, became the motto of Britain’s Royal Flying Corps in 1912. It later became the motto of the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian, Air Force Australians and New Zealanders. The South African and Spanish Air Forces use “per aspera ad astra” as their motto.
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