Illinois state symbols

How to read it

The State Designations Act (5 ILCS 460) names the bird as Cardinalis cardinalis, “commonly known as the ‘Cardinal’”, and the white oak and the native violet as the native state tree and flower. All three were first chosen by votes of the state’s schoolchildren, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources: the violet and a “native oak” in 1908, and the cardinal in 1929, over the bluebird, meadowlark, bobwhite and oriole. Because Illinois has many kinds of oak, schoolchildren voted again in 1973 and picked the white oak. The motto is in the banner the eagle holds in its beak on the state seal; the DNR says it has been on each of the state’s three seals, the first ordered in 1819. The DNR gives the state’s nickname as “The Prairie State”, from the first settlers, after the wide prairies they found.

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Illinois’s symbols and when each was adopted

The upside-down word on the seal

In 1867 Secretary of State Sharon Tyndale planned to use a bill for a new seal to reverse the motto to “National Union, State Sovereignty”, in light of the Civil War. The Senate amended the bill to keep the original order and passed it on March 7, 1867. Tyndale kept the order but moved the banner so that “National Union” is the more prominent part, with the word “Sovereignty” upside down.

The same bird and flower in other states

The Illinois DNR says Illinois was the first of seven states to choose the cardinal, which is also the state bird of Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Illinois was also the first of four states to choose the violet; New Jersey, Rhode Island and Wisconsin chose it too. For the cardinal in folklore, see the cardinal’s symbolism.