Did You Know...

Turkey Carving

There are many animals featured in the architecture of the Supreme Court Building, but perhaps the most surprising is a turkey, located in the Supreme Court Library. It is not known why the turkey was chosen, but perhaps it was due to a popular Thanksgiving myth that Benjamin Franklin favored the turkey over the bald eagle as the national bird. The myth likely came from a January 1784 letter Franklin wrote to his daughter, Sarah Bache. While poking fun at the eagle emblem chosen by the Society of the Cincinnati, which many thought looked more like a turkey than an eagle, Franklin wrote:

“I am on this account not displeas’d that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For in Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America. Eagles have been found in all Countries, but the Turkey was peculiar to ours, the first of the Species seen in Europe being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and serv’d up at the Wedding Table of Charles the ninth. He is besides, tho’ a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”