Hymn: America The Beautiful

The information about the author of this hymn, comes from a book written by Kenneth W. Osbeck. If you would like to purchase the book, simply click on the title: 101 More Hymn Stories: The Inspiring True Stories Behind 101 Favorite Hymns

Author: Katharine Lee Bates, 1859-1929

Composer: Samuel A Ward, 1847-1903

Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people. Proverbs 14:34

Kathrine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts, on August 12, 1859. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1880. After teaching high school for six year, Kathrine returned to Wellesley and eventually became head of the English Department. During her long professional career at Wellesley, Miss Bates became widely acclaimed for her many books, of which she authored or edited more than twenty on various subjects. Her Writings included a popular textbook, History of American Literature, published in 1908, as well as volumes of poetry. Before her death in 1929, she was honored with literary doctorate degrees from several colleges.

Miss Bates was first inspired to write patriotic verse in 1892, in recognition of the 400^th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America, a year every elementary school child knows so well, 1492. The following year, Miss Bates was visiting and teaching, during the summer months, in the state of Colorado. It was while viewing the countryside from the beautiful summit of Pike's Peak, a summit which towers more than 14,000 feet above sea level, that she was further inspired to write a national hymn, that would describe the majesty and vastness of our great land. She writes, “It was there, as I was looking out over the sea-like expanse of fertile country spreading away so far under the ample skies, that the opening lines of this text formed themselves in my mind.”

Still later in that same year of 1893, Miss Bates visited the Columbian Exposition of the World's Fair that ran for several years in Chicago. On the site of this exposition, magnificent buildings were erected. Every structure, designed by Daniel Burnham, was a masterpiece of planning, construction, and beauty. Thousands of people came from all over the world to marvel at the splendor and to stand enraptured before the grandeur of such a spectacle. She writes, “the expression 'Alabaster cities' was the direct result of this visit. It made such a strong appeal to my patriotic feelings that it was, in no small degree, responsible for at least the last stanza. It was my desire to compare the unusual beauties of God's nature in this country with the distinctive spectacles created by man.”

Though this text sparkles with descriptive language, it is interesting to note, that each stanza is rounded off with earnest prayer, that God will always help our land to attain its real destiny. The hymn also reminds us forcibly of our noble heritage, the Pilgrims as well as the liberating heroes. In this hymn, as in her other writings, Miss Bates spoke often of the truth, that unless we crown our good with brotherhood, of what lasting value are our spacious skies, our amber waves of grain, our mountain majesties or our fruited plains? She would add, “We must match the greatness of our country with the goodness of personal godly living.” Miss Bates also spoke often of the two stones that played such important roles in our nation's history: the tablets containing the Ten Commandments and Plymouth Rock. “If only we could couple the daring of the Pilgrims with the moral teachings of Moses, we would have something in this country that no one could ever take from us.”

The completed poem stayed in Miss Bates' notebook for some time, until she came upon it again in 1899, and sent it to a publisher in Boston. Several years later, Miss Bates rewrote the text, simplifying the phraseology, and this revised version was first printed in the Boston Evening transcript on November 19, 1904. slight further revision was made fourteen years later to produce the hymn as it is known today. The hymn in its present form attained wide-spread popularity for the first time, during the difficult days of World War I, and it did much to foster patriotic pride and loyalty among our people. Miss Bates once said: “that this hymn has gained, in less than twenty years, such a hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood.”

At least sixty tunes have been composed and tried with this text through the years. The one most commonly used today is known as the “Materna” tune, meaning “motherly.” It was written nearly ten years before the text by a New Jersey music businessman named Samuel A. Ward. Mr. Ward originally composed this music for a hymn text called “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.” In 1912, permission from the composer's widow made it possible to join this tune with Kathrine Lee Bates' text. A union it has enjoyed to the present.