1900-1910: America the Beautiful

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBJZ_X8iOFE There are no high quality versions of the song from its original time period, but this is a version that Frank Sinatra sang. America the Beautiful is an American patriotic song. It originated as a poem titled “America” written by Katharine Lee Bates. The music for the song had originally been written for the hymn O Mother dear, Jerusalem in 1882 by Samuel A. Ward. Ward’s music and Bates’ poem were first combined and published in 1904, one year after Ward passed away. Bates’ poem highlights many things about nature. Bates also mentions the brotherhood between all the American people. The song was written at a time before World War I and the Great Depression, so there weren’t many financial struggles that America was going through. It was also written just after the Civil War. America was at a peaceful time in history. It is said that while Katherine Lee Bates was on a train, the words for the poem just came to her and she wrote them down as soon as she got to her hotel. The first bit of the song talks about “the amber waves of grain” referencing the United States’ plentiful food and good harvesting. In the next verse Bates included “O beautiful for pilgrim feet,” welcoming new people to the land as America was still having more people come all the time. She continues to praise America by saying “O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years” saying that we would have patriotic spirit for many, many years. This song definitely expresses the things that were going well for America and its citizens. With all of its lyrics about nature, it’s clear that the Industrial Revolution hadn’t happened yet. America was still a quaint-living country with a huge emphasis on farming and agriculture. What can this item not tell us about the time period? This song doesn’t tell us anything about the negative things that were happening. It doesn’t talk about the aftermath of the Civil War or racism. Those topics were left alone to focus on the great things that were happening.