Flag and seal of Illinois
The Great Seal of the State of Illinois is the official emblem of the U.S. state of Illinois, and signifies the official nature of a document produced by the state. The present seal was designed and proposed in 1868 and officially adopted in 1869. It depicts in profile a bald eagle perched on a rock with wings uplifted and holding a shield, with a banner in its beak and sunrise over water in the background. It replaced an earlier seal that was almost the same as the Great Seal of the United States, adopted when Illinois became a state in 1818.
The flag of the state of Illinois bearing the central elements of the seal on a white field was adopted in 1915, and the word Illinois was added to the flag in 1970.
Design
The state flag depicts the Great Seal of Illinois, which was designed in 1819 and emulated the Great Seal of the United States. In the eagle's beak there is a banner with the state motto, "State Sovereignty, National Union." The dates on the seal, 1818 and 1868, represent the year Illinois became a state and the year in which the Great Seal was redesigned by Sharon Tyndale. Although "State Sovereignty" comes first in the motto, "State" is at the bottom and "Sovereignty" is upside-down.It is one of nine U.S. state flags to feature an eagle, alongside those of Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wyoming.
Seal history
The first Great Seal of the State of Illinois was adopted in 1819 by the first Illinois General Assembly. The first law authorizing the Great Seal required the secretary of state of Illinois to procure and keep the seal. The first seal engraved was essentially a copy of the Great Seal of the United States. It was used until 1839, when it was recut. The seal designed in 1839 became the Second Great Seal.Illinois Secretary of State Sharon Tyndale spearheaded the drive to create a third state seal for Illinois. In 1867, he asked State Senator Allen C. Fuller to introduce legislation requiring a new seal, and suggested to Fuller that the words of the state motto be reversed, from "State Sovereignty, National Union", to "National Union, State Sovereignty". However, the bill passed by the legislature on March 7, 1867, kept the original wording. Despite declining his suggestion, the legislature nonetheless entrusted Tyndale with designing the new seal. And Tyndale managed to twist the legislature's intent; he kept the words in the correct order on the banner, but the banner twists, so the word "Sovereignty" is upside down, arguably making it less readable.
Tyndale's seal features a bald eagle perched on a rock carrying a shield in its talons and a banner with the state motto in its beak. Thirteen stars and thirteen stripes on the shield represent the original thirteen states of the Union. The date August 26, 1818, when Illinois's first constitution was adopted in Kaskaskia, appears along the bottom arc of the circle, and 1818, the year of statehood, displays on the seal below 1868, the year the current seal was adopted. This basic design has survived through several minor modifications since it was first conceived. The Illinois secretary of state is still the keeper of the Great Seal of the State of Illinois.
Flag statute
The 2024 Illinois Compiled Statutes, 5 ILCS 460/5 defines that the flag shall consist of:Flag history
Unofficial flags (before-1915)
In 1884, a banner bearing the state's coat of arms was displayed in Washington, D.C.The first state flag was made in 1885 and featured a red field with the coat of arms in gold. The flag made its last appearance on May 30, 1905 when one of Governor Charles Deneen's sons found it the attic of the Governor's Mansion. He raised it over the home but it was soon taken down.
There was an idea for a state flag in 1895, but it was rejected by the house.
In 1914, Mrs. L. E. Rockwell flew a state flag over the Illinois building for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, its design is unknown.
Official flag (after 1915)
During her time as state regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1912, Ella Park Lawrence began a campaign to have Illinois adopt a state flag. She was unsuccessful during her time as state regent, but continued to lobby members of the Illinois General Assembly to adopt a state flag as a member of the Rockford chapter of the DAR. On April 1, 1914, Lawrence sent a letter to every Illinois chapter of the DAR announcing a contest to design an Illinois state flag, with the winner receiving a prize of $25,. Thirty-five designs were submitted in response to this contest. One of the proposed designs was made by Miss Lucy Derwent of Rockford. It was described as having a blue field with a white circle in the middle bearing the state coat of arms with sliver fringe around it.The contest was judged by a panel chaired by Lewis Stevenson, Illinois Secretary of State. They selected the design of Lucy Derwent. The flag became the official state banner on July 6, 1915, following its passage in the Illinois State House and Senate. Governor Edward F. Dunne did not sign the bill, but he did not veto it.
1969 alterations
In the 1960s, Chief Petty Officer Bruce McDaniel petitioned to have the name of the state added to the flag. He noted that many of the people with whom he served during the Vietnam War did not recognize the banner. Governor Richard B. Ogilvie signed the addition to the flag into law on September 17, 1969, and the new flag, designed by Sanford Hutchinson, became official on July 1, 1970.2025 redesign contest
In March 2023, the Illinois Senate approved the creation of the Illinois Flag Commission, tasked with exploring and developing a new design for the state flag. By May 2023, the Illinois House passed the same bill. Lawmakers stated that the General Assembly could decide on the new flag within the coming years. In August 2024, it was announced that a contest to redesign the flag would begin, with submissions opening on September 3, 2024 and closing on October 18, 2024. The Commission selected ten designs, which were published on December 10 and put to an online public vote in January and February 2025. In addition to the new designs, the public also had the option to vote for three historic Illinois flags—the Centennial flag, the Sesquicentennial flag, and the current state flag. The state's General Assembly will make the final decision regardless of the voting results.On March 6, 2025, the Illinois Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias announced on social media the results of the flag vote. The current flag received 43% of the votes, while 57% of the votes were distributed among the remaining 12 designs, none of which exceeded 10%. Giannoulias commented: "Some may call it an SOB—a seal on a bedsheet—and the vexillological community may hate it, but people overwhelmingly prefer our current state flag." These results will be sent to the Illinois General Assembly, and they will make the final decision.