On June 5, 1878 the City of Portland did ordain a seal described as follows:
“The seal to be hereafter used and known as the seal of the City of Portland shall consist of a female figure in the center thereof, representing Commerce, and holding in her right hand a trident and pointing with her left to a sheaf of wheat and a forest, with a representation of Mount Hood in the background, and at her feet a cogwheel and hammer, and on her right a steamship coming into port. Said seal shall also have the words “City of Portland, Oregon” in the outer rim thereof, also the figure “1851,” the date of the incorporation of the City of Portland….”
On September 17, 1964 a modern version of the original seal was made official. In October 1985 the Lady Commerce on the seal was the theme for Raymond Kaskey’s sculpture Portlandia.
