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The
American Eagle
Family Tradition
Displaying the eagle is a traditional
practice that celebrates the individual's freedom of choice guaranteed to all citizens of
The United States of America. Americans through the years
have displayed sculptures of eagles in prominent locations in their homes. Many
families have an eagle with spread wings above their hearth or displayed on the
external surfaces of their homes above doors, entries or garages. It is often
used as an ornament for flagpoles.
Our Product
 Visit our
Shopping Mall to buy a cast aluminum
sculpture of an eagle with spread wings for sale, made for mounting indoors or
outdoors. This item is perfect for mounting above your Hearth, Garage etc. Our cast
eagles are manufactured by the DONSCO
Inc. Foundry in Pennsylvania and distributed by John Wright. We also feature the
DONSCO Foundry by way of our American
Craftsmanship page.
Background
 1
The eagle represents Freedom. The bald eagle was chosen June 20, 1782 as the emblem of the United States of
America, because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks, and also because it was then believed to exist only on this
continent. It has become a
tradition to display the eagle, or the Seal of the United States which contains
the eagle, in locations where the Federal Government has offices or conducts
official business. The eagle is found on U.S. currency and coins and also forms
the basis for many emblems of government agencies.
More About The American Eagle
The Eagle, Our National Emblem:
On the backs of our gold coins, the silver dollar, the half dollar and
the quarter, we see an eagle with outspread wings. On the Great Seal of
the United States and in many places which are exponents of our nation's authority we see the same emblem. The eagle represents freedom. Living
as he
does on the tops of lofty mountains, amid the solitary grandeur of
Nature, he
has unlimited freedom, whether with strong pinions he sweeps into the valleys
below, or upward into the boundless spaces beyond. It is said the eagle was
used as a national emblem because, at one of the first battles of the
Revolution (which occurred early in the morning) the noise of the struggle
awoke the sleeping eagles on the heights and they flew from their nests and
circled about over the heads of the fighting men, all the while giving vent to
their raucous cries. "They are shrieking for Freedom," said the
patriots. Thus the eagle, full of the boundless spirit of freedom, living
above the valleys, strong and powerful in his might, has become the national
emblem of a country that offers freedom in word and thought and an opportunity
for a full and free expansion into the boundless space of the future. --Maude
M. Grant
The Eagle became the National emblem in 1782 when the great seal of the United States was adopted. The
Great Seal shows a wide-spread  eagle,
faced front, having on his breast a shield with thirteen perpendicular red
and white stripes, surmounted by a blue field with the same number of stars. In his right
talon the eagle holds
an olive branch, in his left a bundle of thirteen arrows, and in his beak he carries a
scroll inscribed with the
motto: "E Pluribus Unum." The Eagle appears in the Seals of many of our States, on most of our gold and
silver coinage, and is used a great deal for decorative patriotic purposes. At
the Second Continental Congress, after the thirteen colonies voted
to declare independence from Great Britain, the colonies determined they needed an official seal. So Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr.
Jefferson as a committee prepared a device for a Seal of the United States of America.
However, the only portion of the
design accepted by the congress was the statement E Pluribus Unum, attributed to Thomas
Jefferson. Six years and two committees later, in May of 1782, the brother of a Philadelphia naturalist
provided a drawing showing an eagle
displayed as the symbol of "supreme power and authority." Congress liked the drawing, so before the end of
1782, an eagle holding a bundle
of arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other was accepted as the seal. The image was completed with a shield of red
and white
stripes covering the breast of the bird; a crest above the eagle's head, with a cluster of thirteen
stars surrounded by bright rays going out to a
ring of clouds; and a banner, held by the eagle in its bill, bearing the words E
Pluribus Unum. Yet it was not until 1787 that the American
bald eagle was officially adopted as the emblem of the United States. This happened only
after many states had already used the eagle in
their coat of arms, as New York State did in 1778. Though the official seal has undergone some
modifications in the last two hundred years,
the basic design is the same. While the eagle has been officially recognized as America's national
bird, there have been dissenters who feel that the bird was wrong
choice. Benjamin Franklin wrote:
I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country, he is a bird of bad moral
character, he does
not get his living honestly, you may have seen him perched on some dead
tree, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the
fishing-hawk, and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish, and is
bearing it to its nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald
eagle pursues him and takes it from him.... Besides he is a rank
coward; the
little kingbird, not bigger than a sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him
out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the
brave and honest...of America...For a truth, the turkey is in comparison a
much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . .
. a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the
British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with a red coat
on.
Franklin was clearly against the eagle and let everyone know it. Likewise, the artist John James Audubon
agreed with this opinion of the bald, or white-headed, eagle.
Nevertheless, selected as our national bird, the eagle
has appeared on all official seals of the United States,
as well as on most coinage, paper money, and on many U.S. stamps. It is curious to note the
minted eagles
have been issued in a great variety of shapes and positions.
Also, there is great variation in the species
depicted. Some of the famous images have species other than
the bald eagle----for example the famous
ten-dollar gold pieces exhibit the "double eagle" instead. Numerous people have complained because many, if
not most, of these illustrations show the wide-ranging golden eagle rather than our own national bird, the bald
eagle. They feel these representations mislead the general public into believing that they are
looking at a bald
eagle. The easiest way to distinguish between the golden and bald eagles is by the feathering on the legs. The
golden is feathered down the entire leg, while the bald eagle has no feathers on lower part of the
leg until at
least two or three years of age, when bald eagles also start
developing the white head and tail.
Additional Web Sites
For more information visit the following Web Sites: (Use your browser's
"back button" to return):
Great Seal
American Bald Eagle
Information
Credits
1 All Eagle Photos (except product
photo) Courtesy of The United States Fish & Wildlife
Service. http://www.fws.gov/
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Traditions:
Freedom
1.History
2.Flag
3.Declaration
4.Constitution
5.Bill of Rights
6.American Eagle
7.Ceremonies
Family
1.Weddings
2.Anniversaries
3.Family Meal
4.Window Candle
5.Children
6.Yellow Ribbon
7.Values
8.Flowers
9.The Recipe Box
American Culture
1.Holidays
2.Craftsmanship
3.Entrepreneurship
4.Leadership
5.Know-How
6.Competition
7.Cost of Living
8.Citizenship
9.Careers
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