Great Seal of the State of Nebraska

A blacksmith stands at a forge in the foreground, representing mechanical arts and skilled industry. In 1867, blacksmiths were essential to frontier communities: they repaired farm equipment, maintained wagon hardware, and fabricated iron tools that could not be easily ordered from distant cities.

A steam locomotive moves westward across the center of the seal. In 1867, this was not a symbolic gesture; the Union Pacific Railroad was actively laying track across Nebraska as the seal was being designed. The transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869 at Promontory Summit, Utah, ran through Nebraska on its entire eastern section.

A steamboat moves along the Missouri River, which forms Nebraska's eastern border. Before the railroads arrived, the Missouri was Nebraska's primary commercial connection to the rest of the country. Steamboats carried settlers, supplies, and freight into the territory and returned with agricultural products.

The Rocky Mountains appear in the background of the seal's central scene. In the high plains of western Nebraska, near present-day Scottsbluff, the Rockies are visible on the horizon. The designers placed them behind the westbound locomotive to show Nebraska's geographic role: the last plains state before the continent rises into mountains.

Sheaves of wheat represent Nebraska's agricultural economy. Farming was the primary reason settlers came to Nebraska under the Homestead Act, and wheat was among the leading crops on the eastern plains. Nebraska would become one of the leading wheat-producing states in the country.

'Equality Before the Law' is Nebraska's state motto, appearing at the top of the seal. The phrase was chosen in 1867 during Reconstruction, when the meaning of equal citizenship was being contested in Congress and written into constitutional amendments following the Civil War.