Seal

Flag

The Public Health Service Seal was originally developed by John Maynard Woodworth, the first Supervising Surgeon (the title was later changed to Surgeon General) of the Marine Hospital Service (forerunner of the PHS). Woodworth, who was appointed in 1871, appears to have designed the seal early in his tenure. It featured a caduceus crossed with a fouled anchor and carried the words "U.S. Marine Hospital Service" and the dates 1798-1871. The 1798 date refers to the year of passage of the act for the relief of sick and disabled seamen, which set up the marine hospital system that evolved into the PHS. The latter date represents the year of Woodworth's appointment and the reorganization of the Service associated with the creation of the Supervising Surgeon position. Today's seal is similar, except that it carries the words "U.S. Public Health Service," and only one date (1798).

The fouled anchor signified a seaman in distress or a sick seamen. The caduceus, a winged wand with two serpents intertwined, is often used today as a symbol of medicine, and it is tempting to think that Woodworth intended it to be interpreted in this way. However, the use of the caduceus to represent medicine was not so common in 1871, and it was more often associated with the god Mercury and used to symbolize trade or commerce. A more historically correct symbol of medicine is the staff of Asklepios (Aesculapius), consisting of a wand or staff with one serpent coiled around it and associated with the Greek god of healing, Asklepios. Ralph Williams, in his history of the PHS (1951), speculates that Woodworth used the caduceus of Mercury in the seal because of the Service's relationship with merchant seamen and the maritime industry.

The PHS Flag, consisting of a blue PHS seal on a yellow background, appears to have evolved out of the quarantine flag used by the Service on quarantine vessels and stations. The use of a yellow flag to denote quarantine dates back to the eighteenth century. By the early twentieth century, the PHS had added its seal to the traditional yellow flag. Over the course of the twentieth century, a version of the quarantine flag with the seal came to be used more broadly in connection with various PHS activities and was sometimes referred to as the PHS flag. By the late 1960s, specifications had been formally established for the PHS flag as follows: "The Public Health Service flag shall have a yellow background (gold hue) with a blue seal of the Service centered on the flag." The blue and yellow colors of the PHS of course represent its roots in maritime and quarantine activities.