Bald eagle 1782, the Continental Congress adopted the design for the Great Seal of the United States depicting a bald eagle grasping 13 arrows and an olive branch with its talons. The bald eagle appears on most official seals of the U.S. government, including the presidential seal, the presidential flag, and in the logos of many U.S. federal agencies. Between 1916 and 1945, the presidential flag (but not the seal) showed an eagle facing to its left (the viewer's right), which gave rise to the urban legend that the flag is changed to have the eagle face towards the olive branch in
Great Seal of the Irish Free State struck as a replacement to the Great Seal. It is substantially the same as the former Seal but features the word "ÉIRE" instead of "SAORSTÁT ÉIREANN". In August 1922 civil servants in the Provisional Government sought Ministerial approval to adopt a seal. It was thought a seal was necessary for legal reasons. The 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty and the draft Constitution of the Irish Free State specified that the Irish Free State would have the same constitutional status as Canada, which had its own Great Seal since its Confederation in 1867. The letters patent issued on 6 December 1922 constituting the