Images
The United States flag symbolizes the relationship between pluralism and unity that has characterized the nation since its inception.
Each of the stripes of the flag represents one of the thirteen original colonies; their visual grouping suggests the unity that made the creation of a new nation possible.
The field of stars holds each of the 50 states in the modern nation against a blue background, again bringing the individual the states as political units into a single, united entity.
Finally, the flag as a whole brings together the historical origins of the United States with a visual representation of its present shape.
The Statue of Liberty greeted immigrants as a mother-figure representing their new home and provided the immigrants with a sense of a common experience.
Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus” emphasized the multiplicity of the participants in this great wave of emigration.
By the early twentieth century, one of the great symbols of America was the soaring New York skyline, which at once provided a monolithic image of American power yet at the same time housed the multiplicity of the new urban society.
These paintings by George Bellows capture the power of the steel, glass and granite and the mass of human variety in the thriving metropolis.
- George Bellows on the Web
- George Bellows, New York
- George Bellows, A Winter Day–Under the Elevated near Brooklyn Bridge
In 1776, at the beginning of the American Revolution, the Founders adopted the motto of the United States, “E pluribus unum”. The phrase was commonly used by radical thinkers in the 18th century and emphasized the idea that out of many different sources one united vision could emerge.
The phrase comes from Virgil’s poem Moretum, available online in English, Latin and German.