The story of Ben Franklin and the turkey. Was the Thanksgiving bird almost a U.S. symbol?

When did the Ben Franklin turkey myth gain popularity?

Why is the Ben Franklin turkey story relevant to the U.S. 250th anniversary?

What alternative design did Ben Franklin propose for the U.S. seal?

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If you’re know-it-all cousin tries to tell you Benjamin Franklin wanted the country’s national symbol to be a turkey, rather than a Bald Eagle, between spoonfuls of mashed potatoes this Thanksgiving, tell them they’re wrong.  

The long-recited myth was born out of a letter Franklin, one of the founding fathers, wrote to his daughter in 1784. Discussing the Great Seal of the United States, Franklin said he wished “the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country,” calling it a “Bird of bad moral Character” who was “too lazy to fish for himself.” 

“The Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America,” Franklin continued. “He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage.” 

But there is no evidence indicating that Franklin nominated the turkey to be a national symbol for the United States.  

Franklin was on a committee with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in the Continental Congress that was tasked with creating the seal for the country. They each proposed ideas and Franklin suggested a biblical scene of Moses parting the Red Sea. Together, the three men “prepared a very complicated design that was promptly tabled by Congress,” according to the National Archives.  

The design did not include a turkey. The phrase “E Pluribus Unum,” or “Out of Many, One,” was the only piece of their original idea that was incorporated in the final seal. That official design was approved in 1782, when Franklin was in France.  

How did the myth spread?

It's unclear why Franklin has become associated with the turkey. According to Harvard University's Declaration Research Project, it caught on in November 1962, after a cover of The New Yorker featured an illustration of the Great Seal with a turkey, rather than an eagle, in the center.

The musical 1776, which is based on the events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, also likely didn't help. It premiered on Broadway in 1969. In one song, called "The Egg," Franklin, Jefferson and Adams compare the fledgling country to a baby bird, leading them to discuss which bird would best represent the country.

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Adams said an eagle, Jefferson said a dove and Franklin said a turkey.

"A truly noble bird, a native of America, a source of sustenance to our settlers," the fictionalized Franklin says in the show, to strange looks from Jefferson and Adams. "An incredibly brave fellow who would not flinch from attacking an entire regiment of Englishmen singlehandedly."

Here's hoping your Thanksgiving turkey is less plucky.