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The seal of the New York City, adopted in an earlier form in 1686, bears the legend Sigillum Civitatis Novi Eboraci which means simply "The Seal of the City of New York": Eboracum was the Roman name for York in Latin, the titular seat of James II as Duke of York. York was founded by the Romans in 70 AD.
Contents
Overview
The two supporters represent the unity between Native Americans and colonists: dexter, a sailor colonist holds a plummet—a navigational tool—in his right hand, while over his right shoulder is a cross-staff; sinister, a Lenape native to Manhattan rests his left hand upon a bow.
Upon the arms / shield, the four windmill sails recall the city's Dutch history as New Amsterdam and the beavers and flour barrels signify the city's earliest trade goods (see History of New York City). The flour barrels and windmills represent the tremendous wealth generated by New York City from the Bolting Act of 1674. The act gave the city an exclusive monopoly to mill and export flour. The shield and supporters rest upon a horizontal laurel branch.
The crest over the seal is the bald eagle, added in 1784, after the American Revolution. Prior to this change, a crown had been located in this space, representing the authority of the monarchy during the British colonial period. The eagle rests upon a hemisphere. At the bottom is the date, 1625, when Fort Amsterdam was designated the capital of the province of New Amsterdam, the colonial Dutch settlement which would later become the City of New York. The first Dutch settlers actually arrived in the region in 1624, and the town of New Amsterdam was incorporated in 1653. The English came in 1664 and the Dutch Governor Stuyvesant surrendered signing the English documents on September 8, 1664, and it was named New York. The 300th Anniversary of New York was celebrated with the World's Fair in New York in 1964 in Flushing Meadows, the borough and county of Queens, where religious freedom was first recognized with the Flushing Remonstrance in 1657. A laurel wreath encircles the seal.
The city clerk is the custodian of the City Seal.
Changes to the seal
Prior to 1915, New York City's contemporary seal lacked an official standard, and was often subject to variations featuring a number of different arrangements of the eagle, and the two figures at either side of the coat of arms. For this reason the New York Arts Commission formed a blue-ribbon committee to create a new seal and flag. This committee worked with the New-York Historical Society to study imagery and seals going back to the earliest days of New Amsterdam. Incorporating that historical iconography, the Committee developed a new seal and flag design, which was submitted to the Board of Aldermen on March 16, 1915. The Board approved the recommendations seven days later, and the Arts Commission contracted renowned American sculptor Paul Manship to develop a physical version of the revised seal which could be duplicated across city departments as an official symbol.
With the exception of changing the year from 1664 to 1625, the official seal has remained in use ever since.
An alternate version of the seal, without the Latin motto, is found on the city flag.