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Life Size Eagle – Master’s Edition

Did you know from Wikipedia

The national bird of the United States

The Bald Eagle is the national bird of the United States of America. It appears on most of its official seals, including the Seal of the President of the United States. The Continental Congress adopted the current design for the Great Seal of the United States including a Bald Eagle grasping thirteen arrows and a thirteen-leaf olive branch with its talons on June 20, 1782. The founders of the United States were fond of comparing their new republic with the Roman Republic, in which eagle imagery was prominent.

The Bald Eagle can be found on both national seals and on the back of several coins (including the quarter dollar coin until 1999), with its head oriented towards the olive branch. Between 1916 and 1945, the Presidential Flag showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer’s right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the seal is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in peace, and towards the arrows in wartime.^[46]

Contrary to popular legend, there is no evidence that Benjamin Franklin ever supported the Wild Turkey as a symbol of the United States over the Bald Eagle. The origin of this claim is a letter Franklin wrote to his daughter in 1784 from Paris. However, this letter was a criticism of the Society of the Cincinnati, and never mentions the choice of the Bald Eagle for the Great Seal of the United States. Franklin opposed the creation of the Society because he viewed it, with its hereditary membership, as a noble order which was unwelcome in the newly independent Republic. The reference to the two birds is a satirical comparison between the Society of the Cincinnati and Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, for whom the Society was named. Franklin viewed the creation of the Society as being contrary to the ideals of Cincinnatus.

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