Six years passed from the first Great Seal committee to Congress’s final adoption of the Great Seal of the United States.
Congress appointed the first committee to design a national seal on July 4, 1776, the same day it adopted the Declaration of Independence. The new nation needed an official emblem for treaties, diplomatic papers, and other acts of sovereignty.
The first committee’s work did not produce an adopted design, and two additional committees followed. On June 13, 1782, Congress assigned the accumulated proposals to its secretary, Charles Thomson. He combined elements from earlier submissions, including the eagle, the shield, the constellation of 13 stars, and the motto E pluribus unum.
Congress accepted Thomson’s design on June 20, 1782, nearly six years after the original committee was appointed. The seal’s reverse includes an unfinished pyramid, an Eye of Providence, and the Roman numerals MDCCLXXVI. A common mistake is treating the pyramid and eye as the entire seal; the official design has distinct obverse and reverse sides.