Great Seal of the State of Wyoming

Wyoming Territory was established in 1869, and the territorial legislature moved quickly. In its first session, it passed a women's suffrage act on December 10, 1869, making Wyoming the first jurisdiction in the United States to grant women equal voting rights. The territory followed that act with the first female jurors in U.S. history in 1870 and the appointment of the country's first female justice of the peace, Esther Hobart Morris.

Wyoming entered the Union as the 44th state on July 10, 1890. When Congress initially resisted Wyoming's admission because of its women's suffrage provisions, the territorial legislature refused to remove them. Wyoming entered as an equality state, carrying its 1869 law intact into statehood.

The state adopted its Great Seal in 1893, three years after statehood. The seal's design placed the 1869 suffrage act and the 1890 statehood year at the center of the state's official identity, codifying both as founding events. The current authoritative description is in Wyo. Stat. §8-3-101.

The Wyoming state seal is organized around a central woman figure, with supporting figures, pillars, dates, and an eagle completing the design. Every element connects to Wyoming's founding identity.

The Wyoming state seal has retained its essential composition since its adoption in 1893. The central woman with the Equal Rights banner, the flanking miner and rancher, and the paired dates 1869 and 1890 have remained constant.

What changed over time was mostly artistic treatment. Printed historical renderings vary in linework and proportions, while modern vector versions standardize the design for contemporary official use.