Utah State Coat of Arms

The coat of arms is the central design within the Great Seal of Utah. The full seal surrounds it with the words 'THE GREAT SEAL OF THE STATE OF UTAH' in a circle and adds the date 1896 at the base. The coat of arms itself is the shield, the eagle above it, and the elements on and around the shield.

The design was created in 1896 by Harry Edwards and C. M. Jackson. The original seal die cost $65.00 and was produced at the first regular legislative session after Utah achieved statehood.

Utah became the 45th state on January 4, 1896. The first regular session of the Legislature met that spring and needed to establish official state emblems. The Legislature adopted the Great Seal, which contains the coat of arms, on April 3, 1896.

The design was the work of Harry Edwards and C. M. Jackson. Harry Edwards, born in Ottawa, Canada around 1862, had moved to Utah around 1893 after spending time in Chicago. He and Jackson produced the original seal design for $65.00.

The symbols on the coat of arms all predate 1896. The beehive had been the central emblem of the proposed State of Deseret since 1849. The sego lily saved pioneer lives during the first winter in the Salt Lake Valley. The six arrows referenced the Native American tribes already living in the region.

By the early 2000s, inconsistent versions of the seal and coat of arms had accumulated across state agencies and flag manufacturers. In 2011, the Legislature passed corrections to the official description, and graphic artist Perry Van Schelt produced a standardized rendering that became the new official design.

The coat of arms groups its symbols in layers: an eagle above, arrows piercing the top of the shield, a beehive and motto in the center, sego lilies at the sides, and American flags flanking the whole design.

Every element on the coat of arms points to a specific moment or group in Utah's early history. The 1847 date records the pioneer arrival and the sego lily records the first winter. The beehive records the community settlers built and the name they wanted for their state. The six arrows record the people who were already there.

The eagle and the American flags show where that history landed: inside the United States, protected by the federal government, with a new date, 1896, that closed the territorial period and opened statehood.

The coat of arms has used the same design elements since 1896. No separate earlier coat of arms existed before statehood, though the proposed State of Deseret had used the beehive as its central emblem since 1849.

The main change in the coat of arms history is the 2011 standardization. Before that, flag makers and state agencies had used many inconsistent versions of the design for decades, since no single official rendering had been specified.