Great Seal of Connecticut

Connecticut's seal design predates statehood by more than a century. The colony began using a seal with grapevine imagery around 1647, when the General Court adopted a design featuring three grapevines and the motto Qui Transtulit Sustinet. That colonial seal remained in use through the Revolutionary period without significant alteration.

After independence, Connecticut formalized its state seal in 1784. The General Assembly carried forward the colonial grapevines and motto largely unchanged, a deliberate choice that tied the new state's identity to its colonial foundations. Few other states imported their governing symbol so directly from a colonial predecessor.

The border of the seal reads "Sigillum Reipublicae Connecticutensis," meaning "Seal of the Republic of Connecticut." That word "Reipublicae" reflects the republican political vocabulary of 1784, when Connecticut was asserting its standing as a self-governing republic within the new United States. Connecticut General Statutes § 3-107 governs the current authorized form.

The central meaning of Connecticut's seal is in its motto: Qui Transtulit Sustinet, "He Who Transplanted Still Sustains." The phrase uses the agricultural image of transplanting a vine to new soil, applied to the English colonists moved from England to Connecticut, and sustained there by divine providence. Both the agricultural metaphor and the religious interpretation were deliberate.

The three grapevines give the metaphor a visual form. A vine transplanted to new soil either takes root or dies; the three vines shown bearing fruit are a statement that Connecticut's transplanting succeeded. The connection to the three founding towns, Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, ties this abstract image to specific historical geography.

Connecticut's seal is unusual among American state seals for its restraint. It carries no human figures, no animals, no landscapes, and no maps. Every element is symbolic: three vines, a shield, a motto, and a border inscription.

Connecticut's seal has one of the longest continuous design histories of any American state symbol. The colony began using a seal with grapevine imagery around 1647, more than 130 years before the state seal was formally adopted. The core design, three vines on a shield with the motto Qui Transtulit Sustinet, has remained consistent across all versions.