Young Katharine Lee Bates
14 X 18
Katharine Lee Bates (1859 - 1929), author, poet and professor of English literature at Wellesley, spent the summer of 1893 lecturing at Colorado College, Colorado Springs. Katharine and some of the other teachers decided to hired a mule-pulled wagon to take them to the top of the 14,110-foot Pikes Peak. It was there that Katharine was inspired to write the words of America the Beautiful.
On March 3, 1931 Herbert Hoover signed an executive order making The Star-Spangled Banner the national anthem. Some believe The Star-Spangled Banner is too militaristic and violent --- and that America the Beautiful paints a far better vision for America.
What do you think?
Birthplace: Falmouth, MA
Falmouth
Historical Society
Buy Lynn Sherr's book about the song
This national song is one of my very favorites. I pay tribute to Katharine Lee Bates with this portrait as I imagined her, at only 34 year old, atop Pikes Peak in her travel attire of the day. Bless you Katharine Bates.
First verse:
O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
from sea to shining sea.
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© 2010 Sally K. Green