How Two People Who Never Met Composed the Patriotic Anthem “America the Beautiful”

By the late 1800s, poet Katharine Lee Bates, an English professor at Wellesley College, wrote the poem “Pikes Peak,” which was later published in the 1895 Fourth of July edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. At first, she renamed the poem “America,” and shortly after being published, her words transformed into the patriotic classic “America the Beautiful.”

The premise of “America the Beautiful” was inspired by a train trip Bates took to teach in Colorado in 1893. On the trip, Bates recounted all the sights she saw along the way in her poem—the view of the plain from Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the wheat fields, the amber waves of grain.

Oh beautiful, for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain

Though the two never met, Katharine Lee Bates and Samuel A. Ward ended up comping the anthem “America the Beautiful” together. Ward, a choir master and organist from the Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey in 1895 composed the music to Bates’ poem. His story mirrored Bates, with his music inspired by a trip on the Staten Island Ferry to New York City. Playing off the Hebrew hymn “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem,” Ward eventually combined his music with Bates’ poem.

Years before “America the Beautiful” reached the height of its fame as a national anthem, Ward died in 1903. The song was published in 1910 as “America the Beautiful.”

Beautiful Renditions

Since the earliest recording of “America the Beautiful” by the Shannon Quartet in 1924 and other orchestral renditions ringing out throughout the early1940s, the patriotic anthem has been performed by dozens of artists from Frank Sinatra in 1945, along with Pete Seger, Elvis Presley, Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Neil Young, Whitney Houston and others.

In 1976, Ray Charles delivered one of the most recognizable renditions of “America the Beautiful” with his gospel-influenced version. Originally released on his 1972 album A Message from the People, Charles’ soulful rendition reached the Billboard R&B chart in 1976 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2005.

[RELATED: 8 Memorable Performances of the Patriotic Classic “America the Beautiful”]

Nearly 15 years later, Mariah Carey left a memorable performance of “America the Beautiful” ” during Game 1 of the NBA Finals in 1990 right before going to No. 1 with her song “Vision of Love.”

Backed by a gospel choir, Garth Brooks performed an explosive rendition of “America the Beautiful” during the Points of Light Tribute event on March 21, 2011, in Washington, D.C., while Alan Jackson also shared a powerful performance of the song on the 2021 PBS Fourth of July concert special, A Capitol Fourth.

Photo: Donald Miralle / Getty