Seal of Nevada
The seal of the U.S. state of Nevada was introduced on 29 November 1861.
Description
The seal shows in the background a bright sun and mountains, which symbolize the natural beauty of Nevada.
In the foreground you see on the left the entrance of a silver mine and a factory right with a smoking chimney, symbols for the mining industry in Nevada, between a sheaf of wheat, a plow and a sickle for agriculture.
In the center of a railway runs on a viaduct, next to the railway line are telegraph poles: Symbols of Transport and Communications. In the inner circle of the seal are 36 stars for Nevada as 36th state of the USA, in the lower half of the circle the state motto:
The seal is typical of the pictorial Heraldry of the 19th century, replacing the symbolic heraldry of the 18th century. In the center of the image are the main activities of the state: mining and transport.
History
The seal was used for the first time on 29 November 1861, when Nevada was still a territory and not a U.S. state.
In the Constituent Assembly has been hotly debated over the design of the seal in 1863. Special attention was the fact that on the first copies of the state seal of the smoke of the factory smokestack to the right, however, withdrew the locomotive to the left. For the statement had on the pace of moving railway; from the official description of the seal were the words " slow driving " is deleted, a supplementary application, which wanted to include the word " fast driving " in the description, however, was no majority.
Was also discussed about the state motto. The choice was next to " All for our country" and " Volens et Potens " (Latin: Wanting and being able to ) and "The Union Must and Shall be Preserved " ( the Union must and shall be preserved ) - an allusion to the creation of Nevada as North State in the American Civil War. Mark Twain, who from 1861 to 1864 as a reporter for appearing in Virginia City newspaper territorial worked Enterprise, the Assembly also made a proposal: A sleeping in front of a sage bush rabbits with the inscription Volens but not so damned Potens ( willing, but not quite potent ).
In August 1865, the state seal was printed for the first time on 24 February 1866 was officially in this version. In Nevada, soon came the rumor that the withdrawing smoke go in different directions back to a joke Mark Twain, who was friends with the federally authorized printer. However, this is wrong: Mark Twain held in 1865 not in Nevada because he was a year earlier fled after a call to a duel to California.
The error was corrected in 1915 with the smoke of a state printer, from then on, both showed columns of smoke in the same direction: to the left. The new version but was used until 1929 by the governor and thus officially.