November 22, 1838 – The Council of the First Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Iowa requests the Secretary of the Territory to submit “The Great Seal of this Territory, with its impression, for inspection.”

On July 4, 1838, Iowa officially became a separate U.S. Territory, and President Martin Van Buren looked to Ohio, hand-picking Robert Lucas as Iowa’s first Territorial Governor and Superintendent of Indian Affairs. When Governor Lucas arrived in Iowa, later that summer, the Territory (see map below) – which included much of today’s Minnesota and half of the Dakotas – had 22 counties and a population of 23,242.

The submitted seal (see pic above) served until statehood (1846) when the legislature adopted the current Great Seal of the State of Iowa.

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