State Emblems

By 14 February 1956 the House of Delegates had aproved House Joint Resolution No. 6, establishing the dogwood as the official tree of Virginia. The Acts of Assembly provides an explanation for this designation: "the dogwood tree (Cornus florida) is well distributed throughout the Commonwealth and its beauty is symbolic of the many attractive features of this State. . ." Years earlier, in 1918, the legislature chose the dogwood as the state flower.

Virginia claims several other emblems. Introduced to America by George Washington, the American foxhound has been the state dog since 1966. Our first president kept English foxhounds, which he later bred with French hounds given to him by the Marquis de Lafayette, producing the American foxhound. Another living emblem, the cardinal, became the state bird of the commonwealth in 1950. Six additional states have also selected this member of the finch family. The Old Dominion shares milk, another popular symbol, as its official beverage with seventeen other states.

The General Assembly picked the first North American insect to receive a scientific name, the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, as Virginia's state insect. The original bill endorsed the praying mantis, though many legislators preferred the butterfly. White fins distinguish the commonwealth's state fish, the brook trout, from other trout. Checking for the position of teeth within its mouth will also determine if the fish is a "brookie." Oystering was an early industry in the Chesapeake Bay, and, not surprisingly, the oyster shell has represented Virginia as the state shell since 1974. Harvesters often use the Chesapeake Bay deadrise, a wooden craft that serves as the state boat, to collect these oysters. It was chosen with help from scholars at the Mariners' Museum in Newport News and the Waterman's Museum in Yorktown.

Some additional emblems include the state folk dance, the Square Dance; the state fossil, the Chesapecten jeffersonius, the first fossil discovered in North America; the state language, English; the state fleet, the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery; the state folklore center, the Blue Ridge Institute in Ferrum; and the state historical outdoor drama, "The Long Way Home." All of these emblems provide a representative sampling of the natural and cultural resources available in the Old Dominion.