Designer Sebastian Ellington Flying Eagle Ebarb will soon start the complex task of reimaging the City seal of Newton and recently received feedback from community members during a hybrid working group meeting on March 28.
Hattie Kerwin Derrick, Newton’s Director of Community Engagement & Inclusion and LGBTQ+ Liaison, asked attendees to provide their opinions on four questions for the redesign:
- If you were to describe Newton in three words, what would they be?
- What would you like Newton to be known for?
- What concepts/images would you like to see in a design that represents Newton?
- What concepts/images would you rather not see in a design that represents Newton?
One listener spoke passionately about keeping the word “Nonantum” on the circular design, while others asked for depictions of nature and urged that it be “non-political.”
Lisa Dady, director of Historic Newton, reviewed the history of the current seal and why the City started the redesign process in 2020. The image features a scene with “Reverend John Eliot proselytizing to Native people, specifically the Massachusett, in 1646,” according to the 2021 report of the Newton City Seal Working Group.
“The Eliot proselytizing to Waban scene was found many places in the 1800s, such as in 1865 when the seal [was] voted on,” according to the March 28 slide presentation. Waban was a 17th-century leader of the Massachusett, “the first local Native people to convert to Christianity at Eliot’s urging,” according to Historic Newton.
“Pictured is a colonial authority telling a people that their ways of living and worshiping are wrong,” stated one slide. “Most Newtonians do not want a symbol of cultural arrogance to represent their city made up of many faiths and cultures.”
Ebarb was selected to design a new City seal from among 3 finalists responding to this Request for Proposals.
Ideas for the new seal
Previous recommendations stated the City should:
- Retain the circular shape and some content of the outer rings, for its official and traditional feel and link to previous iterations.
- Replace the scene of John Eliot evangelizing Waban and indigenous people.
- Remove the word “Nonantum.” Consider using another Algonquian word, such as “Quinobequin” (the Massachusett word for the Charles River) or Cohannet, as this area was called before 1646.
- Consolidate the dates on the City’s seal (1630, 1688, and 1873).
- Make a decision whether to use the words “liberty” and “union.”
- Simplify the design for accurate reproduction in many formats.
- New elements to consider: Environmental/nature (Charles River, ponds and lakes, trees, the colors green and blue)
One woman attending the meeting virtually strongly supported using imagery from nature in the seal, specifically, “trees, water, and sky.”
She said she hopes “that seal will be something that will make everyone in Newton feel comfortable and respected … [since] there’s a diversity of political views in Newton.”
A fan of Ebarb’s work on the Boston and Natick seals, she also said Newton’s seal “shouldn’t be political, it should be a unifying thing.”
Another attendee said he liked the idea of using the iconic image of City Hall and said the “concept of 13 villages is a key component for Newton.”
Dady explained why the new design would most likely eliminate the word “Nonantum,” before another listener brought up the subject.
The scene of Eliot proselytizing to the indigenous people took place in Newton Corner, not in Nonantum, even though that word is used.
“It’s confusing,” said Dady.
“The history of the word [Nonantum] is complicated,” according to the 2021 city seal report. “The word was conferred by Rev. John Eliot acting as an agent of the Church and State whose mission was to convert Indigenous people to English customs and beliefs.”
Ebarb assured attendees that he would not make the image political.
“We’re going to make the seal much easier to read and easier to use,” he said.
Right now, he is in the process of “trying to understand the history of this place and how people feel about it.”
There will be multiple rounds of revisions that will allow for updates and changes. The schedule for drafts will be put online on the City seal working group’s webpage.
Kerwin Derrick emphasized that “no decisions about what’s going to be on the seal have been made or what’s being taken off.”
According to Mayor Ruthanne Fuller’s newsletter, residents may also email answers to the four questions or send feedback to cityseal@newtonma.gov, or provide input via an online community feedback form.
Feedback on the four questions will be provided to Ebarb as he works on the new design.
