Wisconsin State Motto

Wisconsin became the 30th state on May 29, 1848. Governor Nelson Dewey needed an official state seal. He asked University Chancellor John Lathrop to design one. Lathrop created a design incorporating the Latin motto Excelsior — meaning 'Ever Upward' or 'Higher.' Dewey took the design to New York City to have it engraved.

In New York, Dewey encountered Milwaukee attorney Edward Ryan. When Dewey showed Ryan the Lathrop design, both men objected to Excelsior immediately — it was already New York's motto. They also rejected the Latin itself as pretentious. According to traditional accounts, they sat down on the steps of a Wall Street bank and redesigned the seal on the spot, adding a badger to the design and discussing English alternatives to replace the Latin motto.

They considered 'Upward' and 'Onward' before settling on 'Forward.' Ryan apparently argued that 'Forward' sounded more decisive — it implied movement that had already begun rather than aspiration. Both men agreed. The engraver received revised specifications. Wisconsin's motto was chosen not by a legislative committee or a formal design process but by two men improvising on a Manhattan sidewalk.

Wisconsin's territorial motto had been Civilitas Successit Barbarum — 'Civilization Succeeds Barbarism.' This phrase expressed a common 19th-century attitude toward Indigenous peoples and frontier settlement: the idea that European-American civilization was displacing something savage and inferior. By 1851, the new state's governor found this both grandiose and retrograde.

Dewey and Ryan's choice of 'Forward' represented a clean break. Where the territorial motto looked backward — defining the new state against what it had replaced — 'Forward' pointed ahead. It made no claim about what Wisconsin was moving away from, only about the direction it was heading. The word was simpler, more democratic, and entirely focused on future possibility.

Edward Ryan later became Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court (1874-1880), one of the more influential judicial figures in Wisconsin history. His role in the Wall Street improvisation — if the account is accurate — means that a future Chief Justice helped design the state motto while sitting on bank steps with the governor. Ryan reportedly remained proud of the choice throughout his career.

Wisconsin's state song 'On, Wisconsin!' (adopted 1959) includes the line 'Forward our motto, God will give thee might.' The song is also the University of Wisconsin-Madison's fight song, written in 1909. The motto appears in the lyrics in a way that few state mottos do — embedded in a song performed at sporting events, graduation ceremonies, and civic occasions.

The coat of arms displays 'Forward' on a white banner directly above a badger — the animal that gives Wisconsin its 'Badger State' nickname. Below the badger, a shield contains symbols for agriculture (a plow), mining (a pick and shovel), manufacturing (an arm and hammer), and navigation (an anchor). A sailor and miner flank the shield. The American sailor and miner represent the two industries that built Wisconsin's early economy.

Wisconsin's first official state flag was created in 1863 when Civil War regiments needed battlefield flags. The legislature adopted a dark blue flag with the coat of arms, which included 'Forward' on the banner above the badger. The flag received modifications in 1979 — 'Wisconsin' and '1848' (the statehood year) were added in white letters — taking effect May 1, 1981.