Great Seal of the State of West Virginia

West Virginia's path to statehood was unlike any other state's. When Virginia voted to secede from the Union in April 1861, the western counties of Virginia refused to follow. Those counties had long differed from eastern Virginia in geography, economy, and culture: they were mountainous, had few large plantations, and depended on small farming and emerging industry rather than slave agriculture.

A series of conventions in 1861 and 1862 established a loyal government for Virginia's western counties. Congress passed the West Virginia Enabling Act, and President Lincoln signed the statehood bill on December 31, 1862, with an effective date of June 20, 1863. West Virginia entered the Union as the 35th state, the only state admitted during the Civil War and the only state formed by breaking away from a Confederate state.

Joseph H. Diss Debar, a West Virginia artist and legislator, designed the Great Seal in 1863. The design recorded the specific circumstances of the state's founding: Civil War admission, a split from Virginia, and an economy built on farming and mineral extraction. The current authoritative description is codified in W. Va. Code §2-2-2.

The West Virginia state seal organizes its symbols around a central rock. Every figure and object in the design relates directly to the circumstances of the state's 1863 founding.

The West Virginia state seal has retained its composition since 1863. The farmer, the miner, the rock, the rifles, the liberty cap, and the motto have remained constant elements.

What varies across surviving images is the rendering. Nineteenth-century printed obverse and reverse views show different engraving styles, while modern digital versions standardize the linework and color more tightly.