Great Seal of Alabama

Alabama's seal predates Alabama's statehood. The Mississippi Territory — which included the lands that would become Alabama — was divided in 1817 when Congress established the Alabama Territory. The new territory adopted its seal that same year, using the map design that would carry forward into statehood. When Alabama entered the Union on December 14, 1819 as the 22nd state, the territorial seal became the official state seal.

The decision to center the seal on a map was practical. In 1817, Alabama's geography was the most important fact about it. The rivers were the only reliable transportation routes into the interior — there were no roads across the dense Alabama wilderness. Commerce, migration, and military movement all followed the rivers.

The seal was revised in 1939, when the legislature standardized the design under Alabama Code § 1-2-4. The river map at the center remained unchanged.

The map on Alabama's seal is not decorative. In 1817, the rivers shown on it were the economic and strategic backbone of the territory. The Alabama River — formed by the Coosa and Tallapoosa joining near present-day Montgomery — ran south to Mobile Bay, Alabama's only outlet to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Tombigbee carried cotton and settlers from the north. The Tennessee formed the northern boundary with the United States proper. These were not background details; they were the reason Alabama was worth settling.

Alabama's seal uses geography where other states used mythology. Each river on the map was a functioning artery of commerce and settlement in 1817.

Alabama's seal has gone through three major phases: the original map seal adopted for the territory in 1817, the eagle-and-shield seal used from 1868 to 1939, and the restored map seal adopted in 1939. The 1939 law returned Alabama to the map-centered design and standardized the border text used in official applications.