Western use of the swastika in the early 20th century

Postcard sent in June 1910

The swastika (gammadion, "fylfot") symbol became a popular symbol of luck in the Western world in the early 20th century, prior to its adoption by Nazi Germany in the 1920s. The term swastika is first attested in English in 1871, and first refers to the Nazi emblem in 1932.

Background

The discovery of the Indo-European language group in the 1790s led to a great effort by archaeologists to link the pre-history of European peoples to the ancient "Aryans" (variously referring to the Indo-Iranians or the Proto-Indo-Europeans). Following his discovery of objects bearing the swastika in the ruins of Troy, Heinrich Schliemann consulted two leading Sanskrit scholars of the day, Emile Burnouf and Max Müller. Schliemann concluded that the Swastika was a specifically Indo-European symbol, and associated it with the ancient migrations of Proto-Indo-Europeans. He connected it with similar shapes found on ancient pots in Germany, and theorized that the swastika was a "significant religious symbol of our remote ancestors", linking Germanic, Greek and Indo-Iranian cultures. Later discoveries of the motif among the remains of the Hittites and of ancient Iran seemed to confirm this theory. This idea was taken up by many other writers, and the swastika quickly became popular in the West, appearing in many designs from the 1880s to the 1920s, with occasional use continuing into the 1930s.

File:MatildeMoisant.jpg

The aviator Matilde Moisant (1878-1964) wearing a swastika medallion in 1912. The symbol was popular as a good luck charm with early aviators. A swastika was also painted on the inside of the nosecone of the Spirit of St. Louis.

These discoveries, and the new popularity of the swastika symbol, led to a widespread desire to ascribe symbolic significance to every example of the motif. In Germanic countries examples of identical shapes in ancient European artifacts and in folk art were interpreted as emblems of good-luck linked to the Indo-Iranian meaning. By the early 20th century it was widely used worldwide and was regarded as a symbol of good luck.

Western use of the motif, along with the religious and cultural meanings attached to it, was subverted in the early twentieth century after it was adopted as the emblem of the Nazi Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei). This association occurred because Nazism stated that the historical Aryans were the forefathers of modern Germans and then proposed that, because of this, the subjugation of the world by Germany was desirable, and even predestined. The swastika was used as a conveniently geometrical and eye-catching symbol to emphasize the so-called Aryan-German correspondence and instill racial pride. Since World War II, most Westerners have known the swastika as solely a Nazi symbol, leading to incorrect assumptions about its pre-Nazi use in the West and confusion about its sacred religious and historical status in other cultures.

By country

Argentina

Several columns at the train station of Retiro in Buenos Aires are decorated with joint swastikas. The Estación Retiro opened in 1915.

Australia

Sydney has two notable buildings using the swastika as an architectural element. The 1920s-era Dymocks Building in George Street, Sydney includes a multi-level shopping arcade, the tiled floors of which incorporate numerous left-facing swastikas. A brass explanatory sign, probably dating to World War 2, is affixed to the wall near the elevator doors on each floor of the building, and refers to it as a "fylfot", emphasising that its use in the building pre-dates any Nazi connotations or usage. In nearby Circular Quay, another building dating from the same period, Custom's House, also has swastika tiles and other features in the front entrance area.

Canada

73 Troy Street in Verdun, Montreal

Swastika is the name of a small community in northern Ontario, Canada, approximately 580 kilometres north of Toronto, and 5 kilometres west of Kirkland Lake, the town of which it is now part. The town of Swastika was founded in 1906. Gold was discovered nearby and the Swastika Mining Company was formed in 1908. The government of Ontario attempted to change the town's name during World War II, but the town resisted. The Swastika United Church is located in Swastika, Ontario, as is the Swastika Public School.

In Windsor, Nova Scotia, there was an ice hockey team from 1905 to 1916 named the Swastikas, and their uniforms featured swastika symbols. There were also hockey teams named the Swastikas in Edmonton, Alberta (circa 1916), and Fernie, British Columbia (circa 1922).

A repeating pattern of swastikas appeared on a few Canadian postage stamps that were produced by commercial airlines from 1924-32.

There used to be a swastika brick pattern located outside at the top of a house located at 75-81 Troy Street, in Verdun (borough), a borough of Montreal, Quebec. A picture of this house appears on page 138 of Hélène-Andrée Bizier's Une Histoire du Québec en photos (2006, Éditions Fides).

Denmark

In the first part of the 20th century, the Danish brewery Carlsberg had a swastika as its logo Today you can still see the swastika on one of the elephants by the brewery's gate.

The door of the church of Viinikka, Tampere, built in 1930–1932.

Finland

In Finland the swastika was used as the official national marking of the Army between 1918 and 1 April, 1945, and also of the Finnish Air Force, anti-aircraft troops as a part of the air force and tank troops at that time. The swastika was also used by the Lotta Svärd organisation. The blue swastika was the good luck symbol used by the family of Swedish Count Eric von Rosen, who donated the first plane to the Finnish White Army during the Finnish Civil War. It has no official connection to the Nazi use of the swastika but represents the Cross of Freedom, the oldest order in Finland. This, however, remains for some people controversial, because Rosen was later one of the founding members of Nationalsocialistiska Blocket, a Swedish Nazi political party. Rosen also gained a closer connection to Germany when Hermann Göring married Carin von Kantzow, whose sister was married to Rosen.

The national socialistic party of Germany adopted the swastika as its party symbol two years later, 1920.

The Finnish Airforce units still wear a swastika on their Colours. In addition, the shoulder insignia of the Airforce Headquarters bears a swastika design. In 1945 the Air Force changed its national emblem to a roundel but the use of swastika in some other insignia was continued. In 1958, president Urho Kekkonen inaugurated the Colours of the Airforce units which feature a swastika design. The latest Colour of this pattern was inaugurated by president Tarja Halonen 25 October 2005 for the newly formed Air Warfare School. Also the Utti Jaeger Regiment, responsible for training special forces, bears a swastika-like emblem on her Colour.

The swastika has not appeared in Finnish medals and decorations. The decorations of the Order of the Cross of Liberty, mostly designed by Akseli Gallen-Kallela, bears a Swastike laid on a George's Cross. As the Grand Master of the order, the President of Finland uses a Cross of Liberty in her personal flag.

Flag of the President of Finland. Note the yellow swastika.

Iceland

The Icelandic Steamship Company, Eimskip (founded in 1914) used a swastika in its logo.

Ireland

In Dublin, Ireland, a laundry company known as the Swastika Laundry existed for many years in Dartry and Ballsbridge (both on the river Dodder) on the south side of the city. It was founded in 1888 as the Dublin Laundry Company[1]. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the company's customers were concerned about the company's name. Accordingly, it was changed to "Swastika Laundry (1912) Ltd". The company's fleet of electric delivery vans were red, and featured a black swastika on a white background. The business started in the early 20th century and continued up until recent times. The Laundry's tall chimneystack was emblazoned with a large white Swastika, which was clearly visible from the surrounding streets. The name and logo eventually disappeared when the laundry was absorbed into the Spring Grove company.

In his "Irisches Tagebuch" the future Nobel Laureate, Heinrich Böll writes about a year spent living in the west of Ireland in the 1950s. While in Dublin before heading to Co. Mayo, he…

"was almost run over by a bright-red panel truck whose sole decoration was a big swastika. Had someone sold Völkischer Beobachter delivery trucks here, or did the Völkischer Beobachter still have a branch office here? This one looked exactly like those I remembered; but the driver crossed himself as he smilingly signalled to me to proceed, and on closer inspection I saw what had happened. It was simply the "Swastika Laundry", which had painted the year of its founding, 1912, clearly beneath the swastika; but the mere possibility that it might have been one of those others was enough to take my breath away."

Latvia

In Latvia, too, the swastika (known as Fire Cross, Latvian: ugunskrusts, or Thunder Cross, Latvian: pērkonkrusts) was used as the marking of the Latvian Air Force between 1918 and 1934, as well as in insignias of some military units. It was also used as a symbol by the Latvian fascist movement Pērkonkrusts, as well as by other organizations.

Latvian left-facing swastika or Thunder Cross dates back to Bronze Age. It is widely seen scratched on the surfaces like rocks, weapons and pottery as a protector sign. To avoid diplomatic embarrassment, Latvian officials were asked by NATO not to put swastikas on mittens and other gifts to delegates at a summit in the country in 2006.

Norway

The iron gate of Oslo lysverker from 1931, right beside the Nobel Institute in Oslo, is decorated with several swastikas.

Poland

A military parade held in 1936 to commemorate the regimental feast of the 2nd Podhale Rifles Regiment; Sanok, Poland

The highlander cross was the sign of Polish 21st and 22nd Mountain Infantry Divisions

Since the early Middle Ages the sign of the swastika was well-established among all Slavic lands. Known as swarzyca, it was primarily associated with one of the Slavic gods named Svarog.

Swastiks on the Denarius of Mieszko I of Poland, 970-992

With time the significance of the symbol faded, but it was preserved in numerous cases as a personal symbol of various personalities, as was the case of the Boreyko Coat of Arms. It was also preserved in the folk culture of the region of Podhale, where it was used as a talisman well into the 20th century. As a solar symbol, it was painted or carved on various parts of houses in the Tatra Mountains and was thought to save the household from evil.

Boreyko Coat of Arms

The blue Swastika emblem was the insignia of the Polish League of Anti-air and Anti-gas Defence (Liga Obrony Przeciw Lotniczej i Przeciwgazowej).

The ancient symbol used by the Góral societies was adopted by the Polish mountain infantry units in the 1920s.

Karlowicz's stone in the Tatra Mountains, 2006

It was adopted as a regimental insignia by the artillery units of the 21st and 22nd Infantry Divisions, as well as by the soldiers of the 4th Legions' Infantry, the 2nd and the 4th Podhale Rifles. A distinctive blue swastika was a background emblem of The Air defence and Anti-gas League (1928-1939, LOPP), which had circa 1.5 million members in 1937.

Outside of the military traditions, the mountaineer's swastika also influenced a number of other symbols and logos used on Polish soil. Among such was the logo of the IGNIS publishing company (est. 1822), and the personal symbol of Mieczysław Karłowicz, a notable composer and admirer of the Tatras. After his tragic death in the mountains in 1909, the place of his death was marked by a memorial stone and a swastika [2]. Finally, it was also used as a personal logo and ex libris by Walery Eliasz-Radzikowski of Boreyko Coat of Arms, a Polish author who was also strongly influenced by the Polish mountaineers and had a swastika on the dust jackets of all his books and letters.

ASEA logo used from the late nineteenth century until 1933

Russia

The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 printed a number of new bank notes with right-facing, diagonally rotated swastikas in their centres.

Sweden

In a painting of the Norse god Thor fighting jotner, by the Swedish artist Mårten Eskil Winge from 1872, a swastika is clearly visible in his belt.

The Swedish company ASEA, now a part of Asea Brown Boveri, used the swastika in its logo from the 1890s to 1933, when it was removed from the logo.

United Kingdom

Logo from a 1911 edition of Rudyard Kipling.

The British author Rudyard Kipling, who was strongly influenced by Indian culture, had a swastika as his personal moniker on the dust jackets of all his books until the rise of Nazism made this inappropriate. One of Kipling's Just So Stories, "The Crab That Played With The Sea", had an elaborate full-page illustration by Kipling including a stone bearing what was called "a magic mark" (a swastika); some later editions of the stories blotted out the mark, but not its captioned reference, leaving readers wondering what the "mark" was.

During World War I, the swastika was used as the emblem of the British National War Savings Committee. Image

The swastika was also used as a symbol by the Boy Scouts in the United Kingdom, and worldwide. According to "Johnny" Walker, the earliest Scouting use was on the first Thanks Badge introduced in 1911. Robert Baden-Powell's 1922 Medal of Merit design adds a swastika to the Scout fleur-de-lis as good luck to the person receiving the medal. Like Kipling, he would have come across this symbol in India. During 1934 many Scouters requested a change of design because of the use of the swastika by the Nazis. A new British Medal of Merit was issued in 1935.

A bank in Bolton England has refused to remove swastika mosaic tiles from the entry of a branch office constructed in 1927. A bank spokesperson replied to critics noting that "At that time, these symbols were commonly used as architectural decoration."

Located on the Woodhouse Crag, on the Northern edge of Ilkley Moor in West Yorkshire there is a swastika shaped pattern engraved in a stone, known as the Swastika Stone. IMAGE. In the figure in the foreground of the picture is a 20th century replica; the original carving can be seen a little further away, at the centre-left of the picture. [3]

There are both left- and right-facing swastikas on the World War 2 memorial at the entrance to Balmoral castle in Scotland.

United States

Swastika as a Native American symbol

Native American basketball team in 1909.

Because this was a popular symbol with the Navajo people, the Arizona Department of Transportation marked its state highways with signs featuring a right-facing swastika superimposed on an arrowhead. In 1942, after the United States entered World War Two, the department replaced the signs. More example pictures are available on the Arizona Roads website maps page.

The swastika's use by the Navajo and other tribes made it a popular symbol for the Southwestern United States. Until the 1930s, blankets, metalwork, and other Southwestern souvenirs were often made with swastikas.

File:Arizona highway marker.jpg

Arizona state highway marker from late 1920s.

Shortly after the beginning of World War II, several Native American tribes (the Navajo, Apache, Tohono O'odham, and Hopi) published a decree stating that they would no longer use the swastika in their artwork. This was because the swastika had come to symbolize evil to the tourists who purchased their crafts. This decree was signed by representatives of these tribes. The decree states:

Because the above ornament which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples.

Therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika or fylfot on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sandpainting, and clothing.

The original Penobscot Building in Detroit, Michigan completed about 1906... "...was named after the Penobscot Indian tribe and region of Maine, the boyhood home of one of the investors. An interesting feature in the Indian-themed detail of the building is the occasional appearance of a swastika, a symbol important to the Penobscots long before it was adopted by the Nazi party." The decorative symbols feature right-facing arms and are tilted in the same manner as the Nazi flag, leading to confusion over their origin.

Swastika Use By the U.S. Military

The 45th Infantry Division of the United States Army used a yellow swastika on a red background as a unit symbol until the 1930s, when it was switched to a thunderbird.^~ The American Division wore the swastika patch while fighting against Germany in World War I.

Original insignia of the 45th Infantry Division (from the American Indian symbol).

The Lafayette Escadrille squadron flew World War I fighters against Germany from 1916 to 1918, first as volunteers under French command and later as a US unit. The official squadron insignia was a Native American with a swastika adorned headdress. Some of the squadron planes also bore a large swastika in addition to the squadron insignia.

Among the Lafayette Escadrille members who were killed in action was Arthur Bluethenthal of Wilmington, North Carolina, who is buried in a Jewish cemetery with a grave marker that includes the squadron insignia, complete with swastika

The U.S. Army 12th Infantry Regiment coat of arms includes a number of historic symbols. A tepee with small, left facing swastikas represents the unit's campaigns in the Indian Wars of the late 1800's. The Regiment fought German forces during World War II, landing on D-Day at Utah Beach, through five European campaigns and received a Presidential Unit Citation for action during the Battle of the Bulge.

Government Use of the Swastika In The U.S.

Swastikas and the similar Greek key symbol appear in decorative features of a number of U.S. federal, state and local government buildings including schools and county courthouses.

The DeKalb County Courthouse in Sycamore Illinois, built in 1905, includes swastika decorated railings. The Classical Revival style courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Swastikas are a minor feature in painted murals in the Allen County Courthouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana, completed in 1902. They are described as "a Native American symbol for joy". The murals were restored beginning in 1994 as part of an eight-year, $8.6 million dollar project. The courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, and as a National Historic Landmark in 2003..

The U.S. Navy base at Coronado, California has buildings laid out in a swastika shape. [4] [5] [6] also see [http://www.thepowerhour.com/news2/navy_response_letter.htm Response Letter from the Dept. of the Navy concerning the News Release] regarding the history.

A government-subsidized retirement home for low income people in Decatur, Alabama is faced with a million dollar expense to modify the building, which resembles a swastika from the air. According to a March 2008 news report, An Israeli-American claims the retirement home, designed in the mid-1970's, and a building at a Naval base in California are part of a "tangled government-funded conspiracy to honor Nazis." Sculptor Avrahaum Segol is writing a book on symbols on public property in the U.S. which includes his concerns for the Mount Soledad Cross, a memorial to U.S. veterans near San Diego.

Other government buildings with swastika decorative features are listed in the Swastika Tiles section.

Swastika Placenames in the U.S.

Swastika Park is the name of a housing subdivision in Miami Florida, created in 1917. An upscale subdivision in Denver is named "Swastika Acres". Its name has been traced to the Denver Swastika Land Company, founded in 1908. Swastika New York, located near the Adirondack Park Preserve in the northeast corner of the state, is adjacent to "Swastika Road". The public access area of Fish Lake near Windom, Minnesota is named Swastika Beach.

Commercial Use of the Swastika In The U.S.

The K-R-I-T Motor Car Company, Detroit, Michigan built cars from 1909 to 1915 with a radiator badge that featured a right-facing white swastika on a blue background.

The Crane Valve Company manufactured steel valves in the 1920s and 30's in the U.S. with swastika markings, using a symbol with the arms pointed to the right. The Buffum Tool Company of Louisiana, Missouri manufactured "High Grade Tools for High Grade Workmen" from about 1909 to 1922. The Buffum company's trademark was a swastika with right facing arms. During World War I it made bayonets and airplane parts. The company's logo was the "Good Luck/Blessing/Swastika Cross" and many of the products, sold nationwide, had "the good luck cross on them."

Flour was sold under the brand name Swastika, The Lucky Flour by the Federal Milling Co., Lockport, N.Y. as advertised in 1909.

Flour was sold under the brand name Swastika by the Monte Vista Milling and Elevator Company of Colorado, which registered the name in 1910.

The Downtown Historic District in Raton, New Mexico, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, includes the Swastika Coal office and Swastika Hotel buildings.

The St. Louis, Rocky Mountain and Pacific Railroad Company operated with cars and locomotives "emblazoned with the red swastika symbol adopted as the road’s trademark." The symbol featured right racing arms and was tilted at an angle. The 105-mile "Swastika Line" operated from about 1902 to 1915, with major stops at Raton and Cimarron, New Mexico. The tracks were torn up for scrap during WWII when "Swastika Line iron was used to fight a different kind of swastikas in Europe."

A "Swastika Theater" operated in Sausalito, California in the early 20th Century. Another "Swastika Theater" operated in Akron, Indiana

"Swastika Boards" were built using laminated redwood and balsa wood by legendary surfer Lorrin "Whitey" Harrison in Los Angeles from 1931 until 1939 when they were renamed "Waikiki Surfboards" "Swastikas became the most widely used production solid board of the period leading into World War II."

Swastika Use in U.S. Literature, Art and Popular Culture

In the 1936 H. P. Lovecraft novella, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, a symbol of the Old Ones was described by a character as, "Something like what ye call a swastika naowadays." Works related to The Shadow Over Innsmouth at Wikisource

Swastika quilt patterns were popular in America prior to World War II.

A 2004 CBS television special on US mass murderer Charles Manson inaccurately portrayed Manson's forehead tattoo. "The hooks of the Hakenkreuz (or hooked cross of the Swastika) are removed leaving what amounts to the logo for Xbox."

Swastika Use by Non-Political Clubs and Organizations

The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, incorporated the Swastika into its seal because of the Hindu and Buddhist associations of the symbol, combining it with a Star of David, Ankh and Ouroboros.

At least one minor league baseball team used the name: the Cañon City Swastikas represented Cañon City, Colorado in the Class D Rocky Mountain League in 1912. The team moved to Raton, New Mexico mid-season, then disbanded along with the league.

The Swastika Canoe Club, of Pawtuxet Village competed with other canoe clubs in the eastern U.S. A website on area history explains: "For the record, the Swastika Canoe Club had no relation whatsoever to the Nazi Party; the swastika was long before considered a sacred symbol in Eastern philosophies."

U.S. Swastika Coins, Tokens and Watch Fobs

Swastikas were featured on a variety of bronze or gold-plated coins, souvenir or merchant/trade tokens and watch fobs in the U.S.. According to one collector: "Swastika tokens have nothing to do with Herr Hitler and his ill fated Third Reich. The swastika is an ancient symbol of good luck adopted and promoted by advertising token salesmen during the first quarter of the 20th Century in the U.S. The swastika is found together with other symbols of good luck in stock reverses on many merchant tokens and commemorative medals such as used to celebrate the 1932 Washington's birthday centennial."

"Good Luck" souvenirs were also available at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. In 1925, Coca-Cola made a lucky watch fob in the shape of a swastika with the slogan, "Drink Coca Cola five cents in bottles". The Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company of Waterloo, Iowa offered a "Good Luck" token featuring a left facing swastika in addition to a four-leaf clover, horseshoe, wishbone and Plains Indian emblem. The company was sold in 1918 and became known as the John Deere Tractor Company. Harvard University Library has a 1908 leather watch fob with a brass swastika that was created for the presidential campaign of William Jennings Bryan.

The 1917 World War I good luck medal was produced in the US with an American eagle superimposed by a four-leaf clover "and a swastika - an ancient symbol of good luck". The medal was designed by Adam Pietz, who served as Assistant Engraver at the United States Mint in Philadelphia for nearly 20 years. "Today this golden bronze medal is very rare, in part because so many of the Doughboys marching off to the trenches of Eastern Europe lost their lives and their good luck medals on the battlefields."

Swastika Use in U.S. Architecture Including Churches

The Garfield Monument in Cleveland Ohio, dedicated in 1890 as a tomb and memorial for assassinated U.S. President James A. Garfield, contains swastika tile patterns throughout the floor. The 180-foot tall building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Swastikas are featured in the entryway of the Montana Club in Helena, Montana. Rebuilt in 1905 using a design by architect Cass Gilbert, the site is the "oldest social club in the northwest" and in a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Gilbert is also credited with designing the state capitols of Minnesota, West Virginia and Arkansas and the US Supreme Court Building.

The Reno, Nevada Post Office features both left and right facing swastikas, along with other designs typical of "Zig Zag Moderne" style, later known as a variation of "Art Deco". It was designed in 1932 by Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, who had previously served as the Nevada State Architect. The building was financed in part by the federal Civil Works Administration and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.

The Yerkes Observatory in Geneva Lake Wisconsin, established in 1897 by the University of Chicago, includes ornate decoration. The rotunda includes a swastika symbol adjacent to a Star of David.

The KiMo Theatre in Albuquerque, New Mexico, built in 1927 in the Pueblo Deco style and restored in 2000, is owned and operated by the city, which describes it as an "architectural gem". The building includes Native American design elements, including swastikas. It was nearly torn down in 1977, the same year the KiMo was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1907, the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, featured a design that had a swastika on one of the towers. Each year the exterior is covered with elaborate murals made of South Dakota corn, grain and grasses. The building is the centerpiece of a historic district that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In Rapid City, South Dakota, there are swastikas in the lobby of the Hotel Alex Johnson, which opened in 1928. They are decorations honoring the Native American culture of Western South Dakota. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The original 1936 patented design (no. 98,617) for the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona, called for four swastikas to encircle each tipi shaped motel room.

At the University of Maine, in Orono, Maine, the following dorms are shaped like swastikas: Somerset, Oxford, and Knox. Google map UMAINE map

The Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair, New Mexico features both right and left facing swastika designs among its many Native American graphics. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978.

Swastikas surround the exterior window iconography at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington D.C. on Constitution Avenue between 20th and 21st Streets. The building was designed by Paul Philippe Cret and completed in 1937. Cret fought against Germany during World War I while serving in the French army. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre and made an officer in the Legion of Honor.

The Perelman Building is regarded as "one of the finest Art Deco structures in Philadelphia". Completed in 1928 as the headquarters of the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company, it is now part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Swastikas are visible among the elaborate decorative scheme, credited to Lee Lawrie, whose work also adorns the Rockefeller Center, Library of Congress and the National Academy of Sciences. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, the building was named to the Philadephia Register of Historic Places in 1980.

The Augustan Society Headquarters and Library, built in 1916 in the Mojave Desert in Daggett, California, includes Native American swastika designs. The non-profit is "An International Genealogical, Historical Heraldic and Chivalric Society".

The Bahá'í House of Worship for the North American continent, located in Wilmette, Illinois, depicts swastikas on each of its 9 outer pillars. The swastikas are interspersed with symbols traditionally associated with various world religions.

A student union at the University of Michigan includes a 1929 chapel with stained glass windows that feature religious symbols. A swastika with right-facing arms is included, along with a Christian cross, Hebrew star and others.

The First Chinese Church of Christ in Hawaii, dedicated in 1929, features wooden pews with swastika carvings. The symbols have right-facing arms and are tilted at an angle, similar to the Nazi flag. The church's official website indicates "The symbol on the pews is an ancient one which represents eternal blessedness." The church's design was the result of an architectural competition that resulted in a blend of western and old Chinese features.

Efforts to Remove Historical U.S. Swastikas

More than 900 cast iron lampposts decorated with swastikas remain in place in downtown Glendale, California. The lampposts were manufactured in Canton, Ohio and installed in the 1920s. In 1995 the city responded to complaints that the lampposts should be removed. The city attorney's response included "...research has revealed that the symbol itself was not uncommon in Judaism. The symbol itself has been found to appear in ancient synagogues as well as being found as a symbol appearing on sarcophagus in Roman catacombs." Cost to replace the lampposts was estimated at $3-million dollars. The Glendale Historical Society "has recommended preservation of the lampposts to the maximum extent possible."

The California State Historical Resources Commission nominated the Los Gatos Union High School for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. Historic Architect A. G. Dill thanked the commission. "Ms. Dill stated that her office was galvanized in 1999 when the new school principal attempted to chisel off the Greek key design because it had a swastika pattern. The school was built in 1925 prior to the Nazi’s taking over the symbol. Educators need to be educated."

The New Mexico State University yearbook continued under the name "The Swastika" in honor of the traditional meaning of the symbol. The University has an archive of a 1983 campaign to change the name, including correspondence with the Anti-Defamation League.

The restored Balboa Park Hospitality House in San Diego, California became controversial when swastika symbols were discovered on five light fixtures. The design dates to 1935. Park officials welded metal plates over the swastikas after a protest by the Anti-Defamation League. The San Diego Historical Society notes that the lamps were donated by a German American group and were intended to represent Nazi symbols. The nearby Balboa Park tea house had previously featured swastika decorations in 1915.

A hand-carved wooden horse with swastikas on its saddle has been removed from a classic carousel at a shopping center in Portland, Oregon following complaints by the public. The carousel was built in 1921 and installed in Venice, California and later was a featured ride at Jantzen Beach Amusement Park which opened in 1928 as the largest amusement park in the US. The Parker "Four-Row Park Carousel" was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987. It is the only surviving carousel out of four made from the design. The original was created for the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.

Swastika tiles

Ceramic tiles with a swastika design were produced by a number of North American manufacturers in the late 1800s and early 20th century. They were often installed in repeating patterns or in combination with related ancient symbols. In western architecture, pre-World War II swastika tiles are typically a minor decorative element and have only become prominent when their original intent or symbolic meaning has been re-interpreted.

Swastika tiles adorn the New Jersey Statehouse in Trenton, in a room built in the 1930s. A newspaper article in The Press of Atlantic City notes that the statehouse tiles were created by the local Mueller Tile Mosaic Company, using an innovative technique that combined glazing and deep carving to create a photographic-like sense of depth. The tiles were installed throughout the US and Canada.

Reprints of tile catalogs, including the 1930 Mueller Tile Faience Inserts catalog are available from the non-profit California based Tile Heritage Foundation's website. Swastika tiles are also featured in the 1920 catalog from Wheatley Pottery Company of Cincinnati Ohio, and the 1928 catalog from the Cambridge-Wheatley Company of Covington, Kentucky, which marketed Wheatley tiles.

• The Mueller tiles with swastika design can be found at the St. James Episcopal Church (1927), and the Immanuel Presbyterian Church (1928) in Los Angeles.

• In May 2006, five terra cotta tiles were removed from St. Mary's Cathedral in St. Cloud Minnesota, the oldest parish in the community. The upper church, constructed in the late 1920s, included a number of decorative tiles including a series of ten that depicted ancient forms of the cross. Located near the eaves, the tiles represented the crux gammata, also known as the Gammadion, "hooked cross". The swastika tiles alternated with a related design featuring the Lauburu or "Basque cross". The building was designed in the Italian Romanesque style by a local architect who added Art Deco features, including the ancient symbols, sunburst brick patterns and zig zag details.

Three of the tiles were destroyed in the process of removal, one was put on permanent display at the church. The removal was prompted in part by criticism from some current and former faculty at St. Cloud State University, where the university's electronic diversity newsletter featured a series of articles, including a history of the swastika that claimed by 1920 it was already "the symbol of Aryan conquest and mastery". The article references small, obscure and secret European organizations with anti-Semetic views. It makes no mention of the use of swastikas in the US at the time the church was designed. At the time of construction, St. Mary's was under the control of the Benedictine Monks at St. Johns University in Collegeville, who arrived in Central Minnesota in 1851 from Pennsylvania.

According to documents at the Stearns History Museum in St. Cloud, approximately ten years before St. Mary's was designed, there were more than 2000 local residents from the heavily German Catholic area serving in the US military, fighting against Germany. President Wilson wrote a letter to the local Catholic bishop thanking him for his support of the war effort

The removal coincided with the sesquicentennial anniversary for the city, St. John's University and St. Mary's parish. St. Cloud is a "Preserve America Community".

• Other Catholic Cathedrals that include swastika tiles among their decorations include: Saint Joseph Cathedral, Wheeling, West Virginia, a Romanesque design by architect Edward J. Weber of Pittsburgh, completed in 1925. St. Colman's Cathedral, built between 1868 and 1925 overlooking the port city of Cobh Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, New Zealand, constructed in the 1880s. The Cathedral of Tampico, Tamaulipas, completed in the late 19th century with additional remodeling (see Tour By Mexico website for photograph of swastika tile floor, click on fifth camera icon). The floor at Amiens Cathedral in France features a right-facing swastika pattern with shortened arms, similar to the St. Cloud tiles. A popular tourist destination, Amiens is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

• The Plummer House in Rochester, Minnesota includes swastika tiles. The five-story home was constructed beginning in 1917 by Dr. Henry Plummer, a prominent figure in the history of the Mayo Clinic. The home has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975.

• The Arizona Department of Agriculture building in Phoenix, Arizona, built in 1930, features swastika tiles in a pattern near its roofline.

• The Health, Physical Education and Recreation Building (HPER) at Indiana University contains decorative Native American-inspired swastika tilework on the walls of the foyer and stairwells on the southeast side of the building. In response to a complaint about the tiles, "The president of the university sent a letter to the student, which explained the history of the symbol and the context in which it was placed in the HPER building when it was built in 1917, prior to use of the symbol by the Nazis. The student appreciated the response".

• Swastika floor tiles appear in Breidenbaugh Hall, at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, built in 1927.

• In November 1998 the Rome, New York Sentinel newspaper reported that swastika tiles were removed from the Gansevoort Elementary School where they had survived on a school floor for 84 years. The newspaper's editorial responded: "School officials lost a chance to enlighten the public. A recommendation earlier this year by a committee of Gansevoort staff and parents to "leave the floor as is" and install a display about the history of the swastika was ignored. Instead, at the risk of being viewed by a small, uninformed segment of the community as being politically incorrect, they knuckled under to pressure rather than educate. How unfortunate!"

• The same Sentinel editorial also notes that similar tiles were left untouched at a Jewish synagogue, Temple Beth El, in nearby Utica, New York "because the connotation to the Jewish congregation is not that of the Third Reich."

• The Reuters News Agency reported in 1990 that the seaside community of Hull, Massachusetts voted to remove swastika tiles from their town hall floor, built in 1923, after complaints from the New England Director of the Jewish Defense League. The removal went forward in spite of opposition from a local Jewish synagogue.

• The foyer of Central High School in Pueblo, Colorado features right-facing swastikas set into the tile floor. The school was built in 1906 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

• The World Jewish Briefing reported in 2004 that Bonneville County Commissioners in Idaho Falls ordered swastika tiles removed from a courthouse floor that was built in 1921. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979.

• The San Mateo County History Museum, a "regional history center" in Redwood City, California is housed in the former county courthouse, built in 1910 and designed "to look as impressive as San Francisco City Hall.". The mosaic tile floor in the rotunda includes swastika designs. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums.

• The A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands, California, built in 1894, includes a swastika tile floor design. The building is has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

• Swastika tiles are visible at the San Diego Mission Beach Plunge swimming pool, which opened in 1925.

• The Orcutt ranch in Canoga Park, California, completed about 1926, is decorated with Native American swastikas. The property has been designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.

• Both right and left facing swastikas appear in disks near the top of columns on the Alexander & Baldwin building in Honolulu, Hawaii, built in 1929 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

• A swastika design is visible on the exterior of the Detroit, Michigan downtown public library, built in 1931. A local website notes "They were a popular item in certain Deco designs, and many are used in architecture throughout Downtown Detroit. They also can be seen quite often on floor tiles in church buildings."

• The Plays and Players Theatre, built in 1912 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has colored swastika floor tiles. The theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

• In the 2007 film "1408" based on the Stephen King story of the same name, there is a scene in the fictional Dolphin Hotel lobby in which a Swastika can plainly be seen in the tiles in the floor.

• A New York City Subway station at Columbia University featured a 1904 ceramic mosaic design with a border of swastikas.

The Anti-Defamation League Law Enforcement Resource Network describes the swastika in its visual database of extremist symbols, with only a vague reference to its use by religious groups, but specifics about left and right facing symbols.

"When shown in a counterclockwise direction, an ancient religious symbol that represented a sign of good luck."

"Prior to the Nazis co-opting this symbol, it was known as a good luck symbol and was used by various religious groups. Hitler made the Nazi swastika unique to his party by reversing the normal direction of the symbol so that it appeared to spin clockwise."

Using the definition the ADL has provided to law enforcement agencies, most of the historic tiles listed above could be classified as extremist symbols because their arms are not in what the ADL calls the "normal" orientation.

Miscellaneous Swastika Use in the U.S.

• The 44-foot luxury yacht Lady Isabel is the centerpiece of the Wisconsin-Built Boat Gallery at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. Built in 1907, it was known for decades as the "Swastika", meaning "Well Being". Swastika symbols are visible on the front of a building in the historic area of Manitowoc, built in 1894 that originally served as a hardware store.

• The "Swastika Series" is a name given to a soil type in New Mexico by the US National Cooperative Soil Survey.

• In December 2007, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts displayed a period room decorated for Christmas that included candlesticks with swastika motifs. The room's interior design had been preserved since 1905 and was created by a Minneapolis decorator. "The symbols as seen in the Duluth Room have no Third Reich connotations, but rather refer to the ancient symbol."

• Jewish artist Edith Altman, whose family fled Germany in the late 1930s, has produced a traveling exhibit entitled Reclaiming the Symbol. "The work strives to reclaim the star, the cross and the swastika to their positive use.". The exhibit features excerpts from the book "Swastika the Earliest Known Symbol and its Migrations" written by Thomas Wilson and published by the Smithsonian. Wilson's book is frequently cited by other authors. It was the most comprehensive U.S. reference on the subject in the early 20th Century.

• The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. displays the original propeller spinner from Charles Lindbergh's famous airplane "Spirit of Louis", manufactured in early 1927. A swastika was painted on the inside of the spinner along with the names of all the Ryan Aircraft Co. employees that built the airplane, presumably as a message of good luck prior to Lindbergh's solo Atlantic crossing.

• University faculty at Catholic Jesuit St. Louis University voted to remove a painting by Italian priest Renato Laffranchi in 2004. The painting symbolized four rivers flowing from the Garden of Eden, with gardens in four quadrants. The rivers have the shape of a clockwise swastika with shortened arms. One unnamed faculty member commented "today, a swastika means only one thing. That is hate, intolerance and genocide." Another pointed to differences between the painting's design and the Nazi symbol. "Look it up in the history books. It's not the same symbol." The university's president refused to remove the painting prior to its scheduled annual rotation.

External links

• Photograph of swastika tile floor in Allston a section of Boston, Massachusetts, HappyScrappy blog, October 13, 2006.