Wisconsin State Coat of Arms

The Wisconsin coat of arms centers on a shield divided into four quarters, each showing a different tool of industry. A sailor stands to the left of the shield and a miner stands to the right. Above the shield, a badger faces forward as the crest. At the base, a cornucopia sits on the left and a pyramid of lead ingots sits on the right. The motto Forward appears on a scroll below.

The coat of arms appears on the Wisconsin state seal and on the state flag, which displays the design on a dark blue field with the word Wisconsin and the year 1848 added above and below.

Wisconsin became the thirtieth state on May 29, 1848. The state needed an official seal, and the Wisconsin Legislature described the design in its statutes. The coat of arms that was codified in 1851 drew on the territorial seal that had been used before statehood, incorporating its main imagery into the official design.

The four quarters of the shield were chosen to represent Wisconsin's economy as it was understood at statehood: farms in the river valleys, lead mines in the southwest, industrial workshops, and the commerce that moved across Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. The badger had already become associated with Wisconsin before statehood, connected to the state's lead miners who were sometimes called badgers because they dug into hillsides to shelter during winter.

The motto Forward was adopted as part of the design. It reflected the outlook of a young state at the edge of the frontier. The 1981 Wisconsin Legislature updated the state flag to add the word Wisconsin and the year 1848 to make the flag more identifiable, but the coat of arms itself was not changed.

The Wisconsin coat of arms organizes its symbols on three levels: the shield at the center, the supporters on each side, and the elements above and below.

The four quarters of the shield are not decorative. Each one names something Wisconsin's economy actually depended on in 1848: the plow for the grain farms of the river valleys, the pick and shovel for the lead mines of the southwest, the arm and hammer for the ironworks and workshops, the anchor for the shipping lanes of Lake Michigan. The design is an economic map of the state.

The badger above the shield adds a human story. The nickname came from real people digging into real hillsides. Placing the badger on top of the economic map says the people of Wisconsin came before the industries they built.

The motto Forward at the bottom closes the design with a direction rather than a description. The coat of arms looks backward to name what the state was; the motto looks forward to say what it intends to become.

Before statehood, Wisconsin Territory used a territorial seal that included some of the same imagery later formalized in the state coat of arms. The territorial seal is not the same design as the official state coat of arms adopted after 1848.

The state coat of arms has been in continuous use since it was codified in the Wisconsin statutes in 1851. The design has been refined and standardized over time, but the core elements have not changed.