Trinity College Seal

The College seal has been in use since the late 19th century, and reflects the change in the name of the institution from Washington College to Trinity College that occurred in 1845.  The seal is black or blue in color, the lettering and various devices appearing in white or in a formal gold.  In the center of the shield is the facade of a Greek-Revival building that represents Seabury Hall.  The latter was constructed in 1825 on Trinity’s first campus in downtown Hartford, and was used as a lecture hall, library, and chapel. It was named after the Rt. Rev. Samuel Seabury, the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States.  Surrounding the building are 13 stars symbolizing the 13 colonies.  At its inception in 1823, Trinity was named in recognition of George Washington, and the stars call attention to his role as a founding father of the country.  Crossed behind the shield are an ornamental key and a staff.  The key connotes the physical property of the College, and to this day at presidential inauguration ceremonies an ornate key is presented to the new president symbolically entrusting to that person the care of the College’s physical resources.  The staff or crosier in the form of a shepherd’s crook symbolizes a bishop’s pastoral responsibilities.  Surmounting the shield is a bishop’s miter.  The staff and miter signify Bishop Seabury as well as the principal founder of the College, the Rt. Rev. Thomas Church Brownell, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut and Trinity’s first president from 1824 to 1831.  The abbreviated Latin inscription surrounding the upper two-thirds of the shield reads “The Seal of the College of the Most Holy Trinity.”  The Latin motto at the bottom is “For Church and Country.”

Peter J. Knapp, College Archivist