The Surprising Origins of America's Best-Loved, Most Misunderstood Song [View all]

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John de Graaf
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As a producer of documentaries for public television, I’ve long been interested in inspirational stories about individuals who’ve devoted their lives to making our country a better place. My subjects have included Terry Pettus, a Seattle radical and labor organizer who helped save the Lake Union Houseboat community; Ruth Youngdahl Nelson, a national “Mother of the Year” and religious leader, who risked life and limb in a small boat trying to block the first Trident submarine from entering Puget Sound; and Gordon Hirabayashi, a University of Washington student who refused to go to a concentration camp for Japanese-Americans during World War II.

I also like films that surprise the audience. My most recent is the little-known story behind one of America’s most iconic songs and the powerful relevance it has for our current times. I found the story remarkably inspiring and hope others will as well. From Sea to Shining Sea: Katharine Lee Bates and the Story of America the Beautiful reveals hidden meanings embedded in that song. I’ve been surprised by reactions to it across the political spectrum.

This July 22 marks the 132nd anniversary of the day in 1893 when the first stanzas of the popular anthem “America the Beautiful” were written in Colorado by Katharine Lee Bates, a Massachusetts-born poet, scholar and social justice advocate. She wrote it first as a poem after visiting Pikes Peak during a summer teaching job at Colorado College. Her words were so popular that that they were soon set to music in 75 different versions that were floating on American lips until a melody by Samuel Augustus Ward was named the official one in 1910.

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I never fully realized how misunderstood the song was until I began work on the film and read a well-researched biography of Bates by Boston author, Melinda Ponder, and another by veteran journalist Lynn Scherr. I began exploring the Falmouth, Massachusetts, Historical Museum and the Wellesley College Archives for more information about Bates’ life. She loved her country but was troubled by the inequality of the “Gilded Age,” and the song reflected her values. For while the first verse celebrates America’s beauty, the other three stanzas ask us to mend the nation’s flaws and fully honor the values we claim to hold.

https://www.postalley.org/2025/07/22/the-surprising-origins-of-americas-best-loved-most-misunderstood-song