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Delaware state symbols

Delaware has 35 official state symbols. The oldest is the Great Seal of 1777; the newest are the blue dasher dragonfly and the red knot, both adopted in 2025. Schoolchildren proposed a remarkable share of them, from the ladybug in 1974 to the loggerhead sea turtle in 2022.

35 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

A list written by students

Delaware’s symbols owe a great deal to its classrooms. A second-grade class in Milford, led by its teacher, campaigned for the ladybug, which became the state insect in 1974. Third graders in Wilmington proposed the belemnite, a squid-like fossil, in 1996. Students across the state voted for the tiger swallowtail as the state butterfly in 1999, by 1,611 of 3,175 votes. A first-grade class asked for the official nickname, the First State, in 2002. Fifth and sixth graders in Dover suggested peach pie as the state dessert, fourth graders at McVey Elementary proposed the gray fox, and middle schoolers in Newark drafted the bill for the state dinosaur. More than 13,000 students voted for the loggerhead sea turtle in 2022, and nearly 900 picked the blue dasher dragonfly in 2025.

Peaches and holly

The oldest symbols reflect Delaware’s farms and forests. The peach blossom was chosen in 1895, when Delaware was one of the country’s great peach states; in 1875 its orchards shipped six million baskets of peaches. The industry was later wiped out by a disease called peach yellows, but the blossom kept its place. The Blue Hen chicken and the American holly followed in 1939.

The bay and its wildlife

Delaware Bay is the key to many of the newer symbols. The horseshoe crab, the state marine animal since 2002, gathers on the bay’s beaches to spawn in greater numbers than anywhere else in the world. Its blood is used to test medicines and medical devices for bacterial toxins. Its eggs feed huge numbers of migrating shorebirds, among them the red knot, which became the state migratory bird in 2025; on a single spring day up to 90 percent of one subspecies may be on Delaware’s bay shores. The weakfish, the channeled whelk and the loggerhead sea turtle are on the list too.

The stonefly, adopted in 2005 as the state macroinvertebrate, is an insect whose young live in streams and need clean water to survive. When Delaware named it, the state said no other state had an official macroinvertebrate.

A star, a ship and a plane

Some of Delaware’s symbols reach further. The Delaware Diamond, a star in Ursa Major, was named in a 1999 contest at the Delaware Museum of Natural History by 12-year-old Amy Nerlinger of Wilmington. The Kalmar Nyckel, the official tall ship, is a reconstruction of the ship that brought Swedish settlers to found New Sweden at the site of Wilmington in 1638. The Bellanca Cruisair, a light plane built in New Castle from 1939 into the early 1950s, is the official historical aircraft.

The list has had at least one symbol that disappeared. The Maypole dance became the state dance in 2016, but the law creating it was written to expire after a year, so it is no longer on the list.

The main symbols

The flag, the Blue Hen chicken and the peach blossom each have their own page. Delaware’s seals and coat of arms may be reproduced only with the written consent of the Secretary of State, so they are described here but not shown.

1 1770s 1800s 1830s 1 1860s 1 1890s 2 1 1920s 2 1 1950s 2 2 1980s 3 6 6 2010s 7 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decade was the 2020s, with seven.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Culture and history

Government emblems

Questions about Delaware's symbols

What is the Delaware state animal?
The gray fox, the official state wildlife animal since 2010. Delaware also has a state marine animal, the horseshoe crab, and a state dog, rescue dogs.
Does Delaware have a state star?
Yes. The Delaware Diamond, a 12th-magnitude star in Ursa Major, named by a 12-year-old from Wilmington in a 1999 contest. The state says it was the first star in the International Star Registry registered to a US state.
What is Delaware's state cocktail?
The Orange Crush, adopted in 2024. The law admits the drink is said to have started in Ocean City, Maryland, but credits a Dewey Beach bar with making it famous in Delaware.
Why is Delaware's state dinosaur a family?
The dinosaur bones found along the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal belong to the dryptosaurids but had not been formally named as a species when the 2022 law passed, so the law names the whole family, Dryptosauridae.
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