Katharine Lee Bates (1859–1929), an English professor at Wellesley College, took a summer teaching job at Colorado College in 1893.

While scaling the 14,000-foot summit of Pike's Peak, she was inspired by the beauty of the “spacious skies” and “purple mountains.”

“When I saw the view, I felt great joy,” Bates recalled. “All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.”

The words to her poem America the Beautiful poured easily from her heart and were first published on this day in 1895 in a weekly journal called the Congregationalist.

In 1904, Baptist minister Clarence Barbour matched her words to the tune of Materna, composed by Samuel Augustus Ward in 1882. The combined words and music were first performed at a Baptist church in Boston.

As a gift to the American people, both Bates and Ward gave up all royalties to the song—a patriotic masterpiece of spirit, praise, and prayer.

About the hymn’s popularity, Bates said, “That the hymn has gained 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.”

Katharine Lee Bates's words continue to echo across time, a song of reverence for beauty, liberty, and unity. From sea to shining sea, may we remain true to the ideals she saw so clearly: grace, goodness, and the shared dream of humankind.