5 Rejected and Lost Symbols of America

The chain of states was an interlocking circle of rings, with each link labeled with the name of a state. It appeared on commemorative plates and printed money during the war, but it all but disappeared afterward. “As the union added states, it grew cumbersome to continue to add chains,” explains Putman. But there was a deeper reason for its rejection: “Newspaper editorials called out the hypocrisy of a slaveholding republic proclaiming itself as dedicated to freedom while using a chain as their national symbol,” Putman says.

New England’s towering pine trees were prized exports to England, where they were transformed into masts for the British Navy. “In a world of limited verticality—the biggest building was a few stories tall—these trees were an impressive symbol of American power,” says Putman. One of the most famous early flags of the revolutionary era is the “Appeal to Heaven” flag from Massachusetts, which featured a tall pine tree.

But pines—and tall trees in general—had deeper patriotic roots in the lead-up to the Revolution. Since colonial cities lacked buildings large enough to accommodate mass protests or assemblies, colonists used “liberty trees” to indicate gathering places. When a tree wasn’t available, a liberty pole—a long piece of wood, often a ship’s mast—was used instead. “Liberty poles and trees became symbols of resistance,” Putman says.

During the war, they were frequently targeted for removal by British forces only to be replaced by defiant colonists. “It was a form of civil protest,” says Putman. Liberty trees and poles were popularly depicted on currency in the 1780s, though by the 1790s and early 1800s, they fell out of favor. “The tools of civic participation evolved quickly,” Putman explains. “By then, many colonists could vote or sign petitions.”

While Benjamin Franklin's preference for the turkey as the national bird is largely apocryphal (he praised the turkey while calling the bald eagle a “Bird of bad moral Character” in a letter to his daughter), other animals were used throughout the Revolutionary era as symbols of identity and resistance.

“Colonists lived in a world of animal symbols,” says Putman. “England had the lion, Scotland the unicorn, but Native Americans had them thinking about animals in new ways,” says Putman.

“Even before the colonists were taking up arms, they were trying out, rejecting and approving all sorts of symbols,” Putman says. Before the war, the Pennsylvania Associators adorned their hats with bucks' tails—a distinctly American animal—to “symbolize that they were true-born sons of the woods of America,” says Putman. They wore them while fighting alongside actual indigenous Americans. “There were elements of genuine cultural exchange as well as appropriation and adaptation,” Putman says.

Benjamin Franklin’s famous 1754 cartoon depicted the thirteen colonies as a timber rattlesnake, another animal unique to the Americas. A rattlesnake was later used on the Gadsden Flag alongside the words “Don’t tread on me.” Choosing a creature associated with the devil in the Garden of Eden as a symbol of unity was a bold choice for a new nation, and serpent imagery declined as the bald eagle soared its way onto the Great Seal.

In 1776, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were assigned to a committee to design the Great Seal. “Seals were a literal symbol of power. Kings had used them for millennia to symbolize the state’s authority over legal documents, so the necessity of having one weighed on the founders’ minds,” Putman says.

Jefferson wanted to represent the American journey to independence as the children of Israel being led by a cloud and fire through the wilderness. Franklin, Adams wrote, favored “Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters.” Referring to Biblical scenes didn’t automatically imply religious fervor. “The Bible was the most widely read, referenceable form of popular media at the time. It’s what you drew on for speeches and symbols to reach the most people,” Putman says.

Adams, meanwhile, was all-in on Hercules, reflecting an Enlightenment-era fascination with the classical world. “The colonies were redefining themselves as a republic and were drawn to the Roman Republic with its ideals of virtue, commonwealth and a civic community,” says Michael Blaakman, associate professor of history at Princeton.

The result of this high-stakes group project was a confusing mess. A second committee’s design was also rejected. In 1782, a third committee added the pyramid and eye to the back of the Great Seal. They included a small eagle, but it wasn’t until Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson stepped in to champion the American bald eagle that the bird became the central symbol of the new nation.

The first official flag of the colonies, “The Continental Colors,” or “Grand Union Flag,” featured 13 red and white stripes to represent the thirteen colonies ... and the Union Jack in the upper left corner. “Until July 1776, the founders did not see the conflict as a war for independence, but rather to protect their rights as part of the British Empire,” says Matthew Keagle, curator at Fort Ticonderoga. “That Anglo identity was baked into early America.”

The “Stars and Stripes” wasn’t officially adopted until the Flag Resolution of June 14, 1777, which called for “13 stars white in a blue field representing a new constellation.”