I don’t think we’ve ever covered the arms of the various cabinet departments in the forum, have we? Several , of course, use versions of the national arms on their seals (State, Defense, Justice), and others have non-armorial devices (Interior, Transportation, HUD, HHS, Education), but others have arms of their own, ranging in quality from excellent to horrific.
Department of the Treasury: Or on a chevron Azure between a balance and a key fesswise proper thirteen stars Argent. Adopted by the Committee of Finance of the Continental Congress, ca. 1782, for its seal, as authorized by Congress in 1778; transferred to the Department of the Treasury upon its establishment in 1789). Most modern emblazonments show the balance and key blue, but older ones like this show them in a more natural gray or black color.
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/history/images/original_seal.jpg
Department of Agriculture: Azure a shock of corn or, upon a base vert an American plough proper. Motto: Agriculture is the foundation of manufacture and commerce. Designed by A. H. Baldwin and approved by Secretary of Agriculture order, 21 June 1895. The blazon given is the official wording.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/collect/history/usda3.gif
Department of Commerce: Per fess azure and or, a ship in full sail on waves of the sea proper, and in base a lighthouse illumined proper. Crest: The American eagle displayed. Approved by the President for the Department of Commerce and Labor, 4 April 1913. Again, the blazon given is official. I believe the design is by Gaillard Hunt, an official of the Department of State who was a student of heraldry and the designer of several official seals and arms of various agencies.
http://www.osec.doc.gov/webresources/accessibility/images/doc_logo_halfinch.gif
Department of Labor: Or on a fesse gules, between an anvil in chief and a plough in base proper, a pulley, a lever, and an inclined plane argent. Crest: An eagle displayed proper. Adopted 1913; once more, the blazon is official. Note that the charges on the arms are seldom if ever depicted in the colors prescribed, but rather adumbrated in navy blue or black. They’re pretty good arms if shown correctly.
Going from the almost-sublime to the totally ridiculous:
Department of Energy: A green shield bisected by a gold-colored lightning bolt, on which is emblazoned a gold-colored symbolic sun, atom, oil derrick, windmill, and dynamo. Crest: On a white rope an American eagle’s head proper. Published in 43 Federal Register 20782, May 15, 1978. Needless to say, the blazon is official, and I can’t bring myself to describe it in correct heraldic language.
Department of Homeland Security: A shield divided into three sections containing elements that represent the American homeland - air, land, and sea. The top element, a dark blue sky, contains 22 stars representing the original 22 entities that have come together to form the department. The left shield element contains white mountains behind a green plain underneath a light blue sky. The right shield element contains four wave shapes representing the oceans alternating light and dark blue separated by white lines.
Dear God…
Yikes. The Dept. of Energy is horrific. That of the Dept. of Homeland Security is atrocious color-wise. In it’s defense the layout and placement of charges on the field were at least though out. However, IF (big if) they bothered to do a little research on this little thing called The rule of tincture they would have actually made something decent.
Mark Twain or somebody once quipped that the progression of US presidents from Washington to Grant disproved the theory of evolution. That’s definitely the case with the progression of arms from Treasury to Homeland Security.
Going back in time a little, however, here are the arms of the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare:
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/58-46.jpg
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Argent an open book with sanguine binding charged overall witha staff of Aescalapius paleways within an annulet of chain all proper.
Crest: On a wreath arqent and sanguine an American bald eagle displayed and wings partially inverted proper.
Motto: "Spes anchora vitae."
(Official blazon as contained in Executive Order 10510, by which President Eisenhower approved the design.)
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A nice integrated composition, even though using one symbol for each of the three departmental missions. Not enormously inspired, but fairly attractive. It worked well as a central device on the departmental and secretarial flags, both of which had the white shield of the arms on a maroon field.
Did the Department of War have a different arms than the Department of Defense?
The seal of the War Department was for all practical purposes the same as that of the modern Department of the Army. The Department of War didn’t actually become the Department of Defense; DoD was the result of a merger of War and Navy and the addition of a new Department of the Air Force.
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Usdowseal.jpg http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Seal_of_the_US_Department_of_the_Army.svg/150px-Seal_of_the_US_Department_of_the_Army.svg.png http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/United_States_Department_of_Defense_Seal.svg/150px-United_States_Department_of_Defense_Seal.svg.png
Just to make the DoD collection complete the Seals of the Departments of the Navy and the Air Force.
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8551/600pxunitedstatesdepart.png
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/7397/2006040601471621usdepar.png
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/6356/departmentsealsmallsize.jpg
Department of State uses the US Arms with an inscription surrounding it.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/fy2006/images/education-1.jpg
The Department of Education has a more imaginative Seal which I find nice. Symbolising the Acorn growing to an Oak as an symbol of the Child growing to Adulthood through education.
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3311/600pxusdeptofjusticesea.png
The Deparment of Justice uses a version of the US Arms in its Seal.
Joseph McMillan;67931 wrote:
I don’t think we’ve ever covered the arms of the various cabinet departments in the forum, have we?
Actually, we have but we’re famous for repeating things.
Joseph McMillan;67932 wrote:
Hmmm ... I wonder if the designer of the above dog’s breakfast ever served in the 75th Ranger Regiment:
http://www.tioh.hqda.pentagon.mil/Graphics/75RangerRegtDUI.jpg
—Guy