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The Great Seal of Washington

The state of Washington has an official Great Seal that is simple in design, but entirely appropriate. The seal is basically just a circle with an outer ring reading "The Seal of the State of Washington 1889", and a center that contains a portrait of George Washington. The present seal uses a Gilbert Stuart painting for Washington's portrait. The state might not have such a simple design if it had not been for jeweler Charles Talcott, who was asked to engrave a much more elaborate design for the seal back in 1889. Talcott persuaded against a proposed scenic design of the port of Tacoma, Mt. Rainier, fields, and livestock. Instead, he sketched out a design using a postage stamp portrait of George Washington. The story is that the postage stamp image proved to be too poorly detailed to engrave, so Talcott instead used George's image from a crate of cough medicine. Several other images of George have appeared on Washington's Great Seal over the years, but the Gilbert Stuart portrait is the official image on the state's seal today.

State Statute.