In June and August, the National and University Library of Iceland presents selected items from its collection on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Republic. The highlights of June are Tryggvi Magnússon's drawings of Iceland's coat of arms.

Sketches of the coat of arms of Iceland by Tryggvi Magnússon are preserved in the manuscript collection of the Library. Tryggvi made numerous sketches for the coat of arms until it got its final form. When the republic was restored in 1944, Björn Þórðarson entrusted the Prime Minister with three heads of ministries; Vigfús Einarsson, Agnar Kl. Jónsson and Birgir Thorlacius, together with Matthías Þórðarson, Curator of the National Museum, who had been commissioned to create the coat of arms in 1919 and to have make changes to the coat of arms. Matthías Þórðarson was instrumental in getting many of the nation's leading visual artists to make proposals for a new coat of arms, the so-called republican coat of arms. It so happened that Tryggvi Magnússon's drawing was approved and revealed at a Council of State meeting on June 17, 1944 as the coat of arms of the Republic of Iceland. The crown was dropped from the badge and the shape of the shield changed. The shield bearers were drawn in a different way than before and also the base on which the shield rested. When making the foundation, Tryggvi had in mind the church floor at Kirkjubæjarklaustur.

Tryggvi's drawings of the coat of arms will be on display in the Library in June and until the beginning of August.