State Symbols USA is dedicated to promoting appreciation and conservation of our natural, historic, and cultural treasures through an interactive website providing information on state and national symbols & icons, cities, towns, parks, landmarks, historic markers, and historic and iconic figures. We promote further learning by offering teachers, home-schooling parents, students, and the general public a free, user-friendly, interactive, and shared educational resource. The organization will maintain a high-quality, classroom-appropriate website and conduct outreach to educators to expand classroom and community OPPORTUNITIES TO PARTICIPATE.
A "National Garland of Flowers" created for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago (made of representative flowers from each state) was the inspiration for adopting official state flowers. This began a trend that led to the adoption of official state birds, state trees, and all the unique state symbols recognized today.
A social studies teacher describes how she and her 7th-grade students championed the cowboy boot as a state symbol on the Texas state footwear page; read how students in Alaska initiated adoption of the official state dog; how a high school student campaigned for state dinosaur of Arkansas; how 3rd-graders in Alabama worked to have the endangered Red Hills salamander recognized as state amphibian; how 4th- graders pushed for a state dog in Delaware, how an 11-year-old initiated steps to adopt a state reptile for Virginia ...