Virginia State Symbols, Songs, and Emblems

For the latest symbols information, visit the NETSTATE CHRONICLE.

Designation	Symbol / Emblem	Adopted
Sources... AUTHOR. TITLE, PUBLOCATION; PUBLISHER, PUBYEAR. Shankle, George Earlie. State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols. Irvine, Calif.: Reprint Services Corp, Revised edition, 1971. Shearer, Benjamin F. and Barbara S. State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols: A Historical Guide Third Edition, Revised and Expanded. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 3 Sub edition, 2001.
Floral emblem	American dogwood (Cornus florida)	1918
Flag	Find out more...	1930
Great seal	Find out more...	1930
Bird	Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)	1950
Tree	Dogwood (Cornus florida)	1956
Dog	American Foxhound (Canis lupus familiaris)	1966
Shell	Oyster Shell (Crassostraea virginica)	1974
Beverage	Milk	1982
Blue Ridge folklore state center	Blue Ridge Institute, Ferrum	1986
Boat	Chesapeake Bay deadrise	1988
Folk dance	Square dance	1991
Insect	Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly (Papilio glaucus)	1991
Fossil	Chesapecten jeffersonius	1993
Emergency medical services museum	To the Rescue, Roanoke	1994
Historical outdoor drama	"The Long Way Home," based on the life of Mary Draper Ingles and adapted for the stage by Earl Hobson Smith and performed in the City of Radford	1994
Outdoor drama	"The Trail of the Lonesome Pine," adapted for the stage by Clara Lou Kelly and performed in the Town of Big Stone Gap	1994
Motor sports museum	Wood Brothers Racing Museum and Virginia Motor Sports Hall of Fame, Patrick County	1995
Language	English	1996
Sports hall of fame	Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, Portsmouth	1996
Song emeritus	"Carry Me Back to Old Virginia" by James A. Bland - Adopted as state "song". Re-designated as state "song emeritus". Originally titled "Carry Me Back To Old Virginny".	1940 1997
War memorial museum	Virginia War Museum, Newport News	1997
Artisan center	Artisans Center of Virginia, Waynesboro	1999
Fleet	Replicas of the three ships that sailed from England to Jamestown in 1607; Susan Constant; Godspeed; and Discovery.	2001
Gold mining interpretive center	Monroe Park, located in the County of Fauquier	2001
Bat	Virginia big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus)	2005
Covered bridge festival	Virginia Covered Bridge Festival, Patrick County	2007
Covered bridge capital of the Commonwealth	Patrick County	2008
Cabin capital of Virginia	Page County	2009
Coal miners' memorial	The Richland Coal Miners' Memorial, Richlands	2009
Emblem of service and sacrifice	Honor and Remember Flag	2010
Fish (Freshwater)	Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) Originally adopted as official fish. Changed with adoption of saltwater fish in 2011.	1993 2011
Fish (Saltwater)	Striped bass (Morone saxatilis)	2011
Shakespeare festival	Virginia Shakespeare Festival	2013
Maple festival	The Highland County Maple Festival	2014
Song (Popular)	"Sweet Virginia Breeze," by Robbin Thompson and Steve Bassett.	2015
Song (Traditional)	"Our Great Virginia," lyrics by Mike Greenly and arranged by Jim Papoulis with music from the original American folksong "Oh Shenandoah".	2015
Snake	Eastern garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)	2016
Rock	Nelsonite	2016

Making laws in Virginia

The Virginia General Assembly offers comprehensive information about the how bills are passed into law and how the legislature works in general.

Capitol Classroom offers information based on school grade levels (K-12).
Citizen's Guide for older "kids" and adults.

If you are planning to visit the capitol in Richmond, take some time to look at the General Assembly's Visitor's Guide.

Additional Information

Virginia
Facts and Symbols
Emily McAuliffe

Virginia Facts and Symbols, by Emily McAuliffe. 24 pages. Publisher: Capstone Press; Rev Upd edition (August 2003) Reading level: Grades 3-4. Interest level: Grades 3-9. Perfect for report writing! Easy-to-read text covers major Virginia symbols such as the state flag, seal, bird, tree, flower, animal, and more. A "Fast Facts" section highlights the state's capital city, largest city, physical size, population, natural resources, farm products, and primary manufactured goods. Also included are full-page maps that introduce the concept of the map key, which is great for teaching map-reading skills.

State Names, Seals
Flags and Symbols
Benjamin F. Shearer
Barbara S. Shearer

State Names, Seals, Flags and Symbols, by Benjamin F. Shearer, Barbara S. Shearer. 544 pages. Greenwood Press; 3 Sub edition (October 30, 2001) This is one of the best, and most comprehensive, books we could find about the official state names and nicknames, mottoes, seals, flags, capitols, flowers, trees, birds, songs, and miscellaneous designations of each state. This, coupled with the 1938 Shankle book, formed the basis of our symbol library. If you're serious about your states symbols, you'll want to have this book and the one below. This book also contains information about state holidays, license plates, sports teams, universities and other trivia.

State Names, Flags, Seals, Songs, Birds, Flowers, and Other Symbols, by George Earlie Shankle. 522 pages. Reprint Services Corp; Revised edition (June 1971) Reprint of the 1938 revised edition. The first comprehensive book about our state symbols! From the preface: "This book grew out of the desire of its author to know, about his native state, a great many facts which he found exceedingly difficult to obtain. After three years of research in the Library of Congress, he is able to give to the public this storehouse of information, which could have been gathered from not library less fertile in source material..."

Visit the NETSTATE Virginia State Book Store for additional Virginia related books, including Virginia Reference Books, History, Biographies and Cookbooks.

Virginia State Symbols, Songs, and Emblems

Sources...

Making laws in Virginia

Additional Information