[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 15, Volume 1]
[Revised as of January 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 15CFR1.2]

[Page 26-27]
 
                  TITLE 15--COMMERCE AND FOREIGN TRADE
 
PART 1--THE SEAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 1.2  Description and design.

    (a) The Act of February 14, 1903 (32 Stat. 825, as amended) (15 
U.S.C. 1501), which established the Department of Commerce, provided 
that ``The said Secretary shall cause a seal of office to be made for 
the said department of such device as the President shall approve, and 
judicial notice shall be taken of the said seal.'' On April 4, 1913, the 
President approved and declared to be the seal of the Department of 
Commerce the device which he described as follows:

    Arms: Per fesse azure and or, a ship in full sail on waves of the 
sea, in chief proper; and in base a lighthouse illumined proper.

    Crest: The American Eagle displayed. Around the Arms, between two 
concentric circles, are the words:

                         Department of Commerce

                        United States of America

    (b) The design of the approved seal is as shown below. Where 
necessitated by requirements of legibility, immediate comprehension, or 
clean reproduction, the concentric circles may be eliminated from the 
seal on publications and exhibits, and in slides, motion pictures, and 
television. In more formal uses of the seal, such as on letterheads, the 
full, proper rendition of the seal shall be used.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TC20SE91.005

    (c) The official symbolism of the seal shall be the following: The 
ship is a symbol of commerce; the blue denotes uprightness and 
constancy; the lighthouse is a well-known symbol representing guidance 
from the darkness which is translated to commercial enlightenment; and 
the gold denotes purity. The crest is the American bald eagle denoting 
the national scope of

[[Page 27]]

the Department's activities. (The above is a modification of the 
original symbolism issued with the President's approval of the seal, 
made necessary by

changes in the functions of the Department.)