What’s the history behind the seal of the City of Santa Barbara? It has two boats and a bay that doesn’t look a whole lot like Santa Barbara. —S.
I thought this would be so easy, but it wasn’t. The folks at the Gledhill Library at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum narrowed down the origin of the city’s current seal to sometime around 1900 but couldn’t uncover anything about the design. I asked everyone I could think of, hitting one brick wall after another. Was it really possible that Santa Barbara has a city seal that no one knows the meaning of?
Then the reference staff at the Santa Barbara Public Library stepped up. The following is from Library Systems Analyst Kathleen Kosiec, who was assisted by Jace Turner, Adult Education & Information Services Librarian; Lisa Neubert, Collections Librarian; and Justin Chou, Library Technician…