Liberty in Glass

On June 20, 1782, the Continental Congress approved the design of the Great Seal of the United States. Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, drew the final version from the work of three earlier committees. At its center is a bald eagle with an olive branch in one talon and thirteen arrows in the other, thirteen stars above its head and a scroll in its beak reading E Pluribus Unum.

The eagle has been the emblem on the seal ever since, though Congress made it the national bird by law only in December 2024. It is a fish-eater, and it hunts the way this one is shown: swooping low and snatching its prey out of the water with its talons.

The eagle drops toward the left with wings wide and talons forward, its white head and yellow beak lowered, the feathers in dark brown and rust with white tips. Behind it, cobalt segments fan out from a white star at the top of the frame, and bands of red and white curve around the lower edge, with small stars in the corners. The whole thing is laid out like a stained-glass window, every wedge outlined and lit as if from behind.