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Seth Eastman’s watercolor image for the Minnesota Territorial Seal

Watercolor artwork for the Minnesota Territorial Seal created by Seth Eastman in 1849.

Great Seal of the Territory of Wisconsin

The Great Seal of the Territory of Wisconsin, after 1838. The themes of oncoming civilization and retreating “savagery” were—and are—common pioneering motifs. The seals of Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, and North Dakota portray plowmen, while standalone plows appear on ten others. Kansas and North Dakota seals depict retreating Native people as well. The seal of Wisconsin Territory, containing both a foregrounded plowman and a Native man gesturing westwards, may have influenced the Minnesota seal.

Minnesota State Seal

Brass seal of Minnesota, created in 1858.

Minnesota State Seal

The original Great Seal of Minnesota was created by men who tied their fortunes to the progress (as they defined it) and settlement of the state, often at the expense of Native Americans. Starting in the late 1960s, critics of the seal argued that its imagery reflected an anti-Native American bias. In 2023, a State Emblems Redesign Commission chose a new design for the seal intended to better represent twenty-first-century Minnesota.

View from the stage of the Socialist Opera House

View from the stage of the Socialist Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota, undated.

View of the stage from the upper balcony of the Socialist Opera House

View of the stage from the upper balcony of the Socialist Opera House in Virginia, Minnesota, undated.

Dakota lace makers in Morton

Dakota lace makers display their work at a photography studio in Morton, Minnesota (Birch Coulee), ca. 1900. Pictured are (left to right): Mary Wabasha, Lucy Thomas, Amelia St. Clair, Julia Jones, Julia Lawrence, and Hanna Wells. Collection III.40.102, Minnesota Historical Society.