LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y. — Complaints over the appearance of women’s breasts on the Cattaraugus County seal in place for 49 years in the County Legislative chambers sparked a lot of reaction on Thursday.
Allegany Democrat Vergilio “Dick” Giardini told colleagues on Wednesday that constituents had raised the issue while he was campaigning door-to-door earlier this month.
Giardini said he was told the breasts on the women on the County Seal were disgusting and the seal should be changed.
Several female legislators have expressed concern about posing for photographs in front of the seal in the legislative chambers, Minority Leader Susan Labuhn, D-Salamanca, said on Wednesday.
Several news organizations picked up the story and called the Cattaraugus County Museum in Machias where they asked Historian Sharon Fellows about the seal controversy.
The bronze replica of the County Seal has been displayed in the County Legislature chambers since the County Center opened in 1970.
It is based on the County Seal displayed on the front of the County Center on Court Street here, a 12-foot diameter granite relief that weigh almost 3 tons.
The County Seal was installed at the peak of the County Courthouse built in 1868. It was removed before the courthouse was demolished in 1969 for incorporation into the new County Center.
Fellows said the first mention of the County Seal was a file in the New York State Archives dated Jan. 10, 1819. The County was incorporated March 11, 1808. This seal is simple, and based on the Cattaraugus County Surrogate’s seal. Cattaraugus County was written around the outside of the circle and the word Seal was in the center.
In the 1870 Board of Supervisors Journal of Proceedings, Fellows found an example of an early County Seal. It shows a shield over the word Excelsior with two women standing on either side.
There are stark differences in the replica of the County Seal on the outside of the County Center and the bronze replica in the Legislature Chambers.
Fellows said the word Excelsior is on both. It is Latin for Ever Upward.
In the seal in the Legislative Chambers, Fellows said the seated figure on the right of the original seal is holding a scroll. A sword is at her feet. The figure on the right could be the female figure of Liberty, she said. It is similar to the one at the entrance to the County Office Building in Olean.
The seal on the outside of the County Center in Little Valley shows two figures flanking a Greek temple, Fellows said. On the left sits the blindfolded figure of Justice holding a balance scale. On the right, an Avenger holds a sword. Fellows said that together, they represent the adversaries of the justice system.
Cattaraugus County legislature Chairman James J. Snyder was out of town and did not attend Wednesday’s County Legislature meeting where the issue of the breasts on the County Seal was discussed. Briefed on the substance of the discussion of the women’s breasts on the seal, Snyder commented: “I’ve been there for 44 years and I’ve never noticed it.”
He added: “The guys next year can deal with it. I won’t be there.”
Rick Schwab, former Olean Times Herald Cattaraugus County Bureau chief, saw the story and photos and said, “I never noticed this during all the years I covered the County legislature.”
And at Olean Intermediate/Middle School, art teacher Laura Cawley called the County Museum for more information after some of her fellow teachers were discussing it over coffee Thursday morning.
“It got brought up in conversation,” Cawley said. “I was intrigued. I don’t find it offensive. I was more curious about the history. What’s the meaning behind this?”
