In God We Trust

acrylic, graphite & brass on MDF

37.5" x 25.5"

2012

In 1956, during the height of the Cold War, Congress adopted ‘In God we trust’ as the official motto of the nation. E Pluribus Unum (Out of Many, one), had been the de facto motto of the United States of America since 1782 when the American Great Seal, which prominently features the phrase on its obverse, was adopted by an act of Congress. Perhaps a motto which identified the US as a collective singularity too closely resembled the communist ideologies of our national rivals, or perhaps it was to distinguish the United States as fundamentally opposed to the atheist-communist USSR. Whatever the reason, the change is indicative of a greater national change in civil priorities and identity -- this plaque is a memorial to the national identity of our past.