Things weren’t going well in 1893. The country had settled into a depression that put one in five Americans out of work. Still, Katharine Lee Bates, a young English teacher who had taken a summer teaching job in Colorado, scanned the horizon and saw hope. Her train ride from Massachusetts had passed through enormous wheat fields in Kansas. Later in the summer she had ridden a donkey to the summit of Pikes Peak. She was only on the top for 30 minutes, but she later remarked, “It was then and there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under those ample skies, that the opening lines of the hymn floated into my mind.”
After she returned to her hotel room that night, she remarked to friends that countries such as England had failed because, while they may have been “great,” they had not been “good.” She added that “unless we are willing to crown our greatness with goodness, and our bounty with brotherhood, our beloved America may go the same way.”
Based on her experiences on that trip, she wrote a poem that two years later was published in a church newspaper for their 4th of July edition. They paid her $5.
Churches loved the poem and soon it was put to music. The most popular tune, and the one we use today, was written by Samuel Ward, a church organist living in Newark, New Jersey. He wrote it on the cuff of a friend’s shirt.
By 1926 a strong push was made to adopt the hymn as the national anthem of the United States but President Hoover chose the “Star-Spangled Banner” instead. Many still prefer “America the Beautiful” and think it is an expression of patriotism at its finest. One writer has said it conveys an attitude of appreciation and gratitude for the nation’s extraordinary physical beauty and abundance, without being triumphalistic.
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Adapted from these articles:
“America The Beautiful: The “Almost” National Anthem of the United States,” < http://pikespeak.us.com/Learn/america-the-beautiful.html >
“America the Beautiful,” The Library of Congress: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, < http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200000001/default.html >
“Her Hymn Endures,” Nick Charles, People magazine, < http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20135652,00.html >