Great Seal of Florida

The central figure of the seal is a Seminole woman in traditional patchwork dress, scattering flowers. The patchwork clothing is specific to the Seminole people of Florida, a style developed in the late 19th century using the band-sewing technique made possible by the introduction of the sewing machine. Its presence on the figure identifies her unambiguously as Seminole.

The Seminole people occupy a unique place in American history. Three Seminole Wars were fought between the United States and the Seminole in Florida between 1816 and 1858; the Third Seminole War ended without a formal peace treaty, leaving the Seminole as the only Indigenous nation in the continental United States never to sign a surrender agreement with the federal government. A portion of the Seminole Nation remains in Florida today.

The original 1868 figure was a generic woman with no identifying features. The 1985 revision replaced her specifically because Florida legislators and Seminole representatives argued that the seal should accurately represent the people it depicted. The corrected figure wears the traditional dress that makes the identification specific.

The sabal palm stands to the left of the Seminole woman, its fronds arching over the scene. It is Florida's official state tree, and the most visually characteristic tree of Florida's landscape, present throughout the state from the panhandle to the Keys. The palm has appeared on the seal since 1868.

The sabal palm was formally designated the Florida state tree in 1953, but its presence on the seal long predates that official designation. The 1868 designers chose it because it was the single most recognizable Florida tree to anyone who had visited or read about the state in the 19th century.

A steamboat moves across the water in the background of the seal. In 1868, when the seal was designed, steamboats were the primary means of transportation through Florida's rivers and along its coasts. The St. Johns River, the Ocklawaha, and Florida's Gulf and Atlantic shorelines were all active steamboat routes.

The steamboat on the seal places the design firmly in the 19th century. It was not updated in the 1985 revision, which focused on correcting factual errors rather than modernizing the imagery. The steamboat remains as a historical marker of the era in which Florida's statehood symbols were first created.

The sun rises over the background of the seal, its rays spreading above the distant water and vegetation. The rising sun was part of the original 1868 design and was retained unchanged in 1985. It places the scene at dawn, suggesting beginning and promise rather than established order.

Florida's nickname, the Sunshine State, was not officially adopted until 1970, but the state's identity with sun and warmth predates that designation by a century. The rising sun on the 1868 seal reflects the same association that eventually became the nickname.

"In God We Trust" appears around the border of the Florida seal. Florida adopted the phrase in 1868, predating its adoption as the United States national motto by 88 years; Congress made it the national motto in 1956. The phrase had appeared on U.S. coins since the Civil War era, but Florida's use of it as a seal motto came before it was formally elevated to the national level.

The motto's appearance on the seal border places it as a frame for the imagery inside rather than as one of the visual elements. It is one of the few parts of the seal that has not been the subject of revision or debate, retained identically from 1868 through the 1985 correction.