Educational Materials
GLOSSARY OF TERMS, PLACES, SONGS, PEOPLE AND EVENTS IN THE FILM “FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA: KATHARINE LEE BATES AND THE STORY OF AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL”
Intended to help students and others to understand references from the film, as many may be unfamiliar to them. Short summaries are primarily from Wikipedia and other sources and are far from complete. The links below each item will lead students to more information if desired. The terms in the Glossary for the most part refer to themes or subjects mentioned in the film itself. Glossary created by Hana Jakoubkova.
LOCATIONS
Boston, Massachusetts
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and financial center of New England. Boston was founded on the Shawmut Peninsula in 1630 by English Puritan settlers. In 1898, Boston was the center of opposition to the Spanish-American and Philippine wars. Katharine Lee Bates was part of that movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston
Boston’s Mechanics Hall
Mechanics Hall was a building and community institution on Huntington Avenue at West Newton Street, from 1881 to 1959. In 1928 a great crowd filled Boston’s Mechanics Hall to hear Katharine Lee Bates final speech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanics_Hall_(Boston,_Massachusetts
https://lostnewengland.com/2015/09/mechanics-hall-boston/
Broadmoor Casino, Colorado Springs
In July 1891, the Broadmoor Casino opened on the east side of Cheyenne Lake in Colorado Springs. A white two-story Georgian-style building, it included dining rooms, ballrooms, game and billiard rooms, a bar, and a reading room. Katharine Lee Bates went dancing at the Broadmoor Casino in the summer of 1893. It is now a very prominent luxury hotel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Broadmoor
https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/broadmoor
7982-548d-8c71-c07e709bafe5.html#1
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. Katharine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth, Massachusetts on the west end of Cape Cod.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Cod
https://www.visittheusa.com/destination/cape-cod
Colorado College
Colorado College, in Colorado Springs was founded in 1874 by U.S. Civil War veteran General William Jackson Palmer , the founder of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad . Founder Thomas Nelson Haskell of the Presbyterian Church described it as a coeducational liberal arts college in the tradition of Oberlin College . As many U.S. colleges and universities that have endured from the 19th century, it now is secular in outlook but retains its focus on the liberal arts. Katharine Lee Bates wrote “America the Beautiful” during her summer teaching position at Colorado College in 1893.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_College
https://www.coloradocollege.edu
Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs is the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. It is where the Colorado College is located and where Katharine Lee Bates spent her summer teaching in 1893, just before writing AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Springs,_Colorado
Luxor, Egypt
Luxor is a city in Upper Egypt, which includes the site of the Ancient city of Thebes. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the '“world’s greatest open-air museum”. Bates visited Luxor on her trip to Egypt in 1906 and was reminded of how historical empires have fallen.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor
Ellis Island, New York
Ellis Island is at the entrance to New York Harbor near the Statue of Liberty. Millions of European immigrants first arrived in the United States here during Bates’ lifetime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Island
https://www.nps.gov/elis/index.htm
https://www.statueofliberty.org
Falmouth, Massachusetts
Falmouth is a port town in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. Falmouth was first settled by English colonists in 1660 and was officially incorporated in 1686. Early principal activities were farming, salt works, shipping, whaling, and sheep husbandry. Katharine Lee Bates was born in Falmouth in 1859 and lived there until 1871, returning during her summer vacations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falmouth,_Massachusetts
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs
Garden of the Gods is a public park located in Colorado Springs, Colorado . Helen Hunt Jackson wrote of the park, “You wind among rocks of every conceivable and inconceivable shape and size... all bright red, all motionless and silent, with a strange look of having been just stopped and held back in the very climax of some supernatural catastrophe.” Katharine Lee Bates visited Garden of the Gods in the summer of 1893.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garden_of_the_Gods
Holy Land, The
The Holy Land is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. Bates visited it in 1906, walking along the Sea of Galilee and climbing the small peak where Jesus is said to have delivered The Sermon on the Mount.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Land
International Institute for Girls, Spain
A school established in the late 19th century in Santander, Spain, by American missionary Alice Gordon Gulick, it was primarily focused on providing higher education which was considered progressive at the time. Katharine Lee Bates helped support the school and visited it in 1899.
https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/4/resources/6
https://www.esmadrid.com/en/tourist-information/instituto-internacional-de-senoritas-de-espana
Middle East, The
The Middle East is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. In 1906, Bates spent the summer 1906 in the Middle East with president Wellesley’s president Caroline Hazard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about 30 miles (48 km) south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Nantucket is the southeastern most town in both Massachusetts and the New England region. The name "Nantucket" is adapted from similar Algonquian names for the island. Ships from Bates’ hometown of Falmouth sailed past Nantucket and into the broad Atlantic Ocean.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nantucket
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York in the United States. Katharine Lee Bates stopped at Niagara Falls on the way to Colorado in 1893 and found it outstandingly beautiful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niagara_Falls
https://www.niagarafallsusa.com
https://www.niagarafallsstatepark.com
Oxford, England
The University of Oxford is a research university in Oxford, England. It's the oldest university in the English-speaking world, founded in 1096. Katharine Lee Bates studied at Oxford in 1890 and 1891 as she earned a master’s degree from Wellesley, and returned to Oxford often in subsequent years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford
Pikes Peak, Colorado
Pikes Peak is the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains in North America. The ultra-prominent 14,115-foot peak is located in Pike National Forest, 12 miles (19 km) west of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado. Katharine Lee Bates wrote the first verse of AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL in July 1893, after a trip to the summit of Pike’s Peak.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pikes_Peak
https://coloradosprings.gov/drivepikespeak
Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women’s liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Founded in 1870, and opened in 1875, it is a member of the Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial grouping of current and former women’s colleges in the northeastern United States. Wellesley was founded by Pauline and Henry Fowle Durant, believers in educational opportunity for women, who intended that the college should prepare women for “great conflicts, for vast reforms in social life”. Katharine Lee Bates was a student at Wellesley from 1876-1880 and a professor there from 1885-1925.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley_College
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Wellesley is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts and a part of Greater Boston. It was settled in the 1600s as part of Dedham, Massachusetts. The town was named after the “Wellesley” estate of local benefactor Horatio Hollis Hunnewell. Katharine Lee Bates lived in Wellesley from 1871 until her death in 1929.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellesley,_Massachusetts
PEOPLE
Addams, Jane (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935)
Addams was an American settlement activist , reformer , social worker, sociologist , public administrator , philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of social work and Women’s suffrage. Bates visited with Addams at her famous institution Hull House in Chicago in 1893. Addams was also part of the anti-imperialist response to the Spanish American War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Addams
Bryan, William Jennings (September 6, 1860 – May 21, 1935)
William Jennings Bryan was an American lawyer, orator, and politician. He was a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party’s nominee for President of the United States in the 1896, 1900, and 1908 elections. He served in the House of Representatives from 1891 to 1895 and as the Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson from 1913 to 1915. Because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, Bryan was often called "the Great Commoner. Bryan was also part of the anti-imperialist movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jennings_Bryan
Carnegie, Andrew (November 25, 1835 – August 11, 1919)
Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. He immigrated to what is now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States with his parents in 1848 at the age of 12. He became a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist who devoted the remainder of his life to large-scale philanthropy, with special emphasis on building local libraries, working for world peace, education, and scientific research. He too, was part of the anti-imperialist movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie
Caruso, Enrico (25 February 1873 – 2 August 1921)
Enrico Caruso was an Italian and later, American opera star. His voice was legendary and among the first to be put on records. Many of his recordings still remain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrico_Caruso
Chaucer, Geoffrey (1343 – 25 October 1400)
Geoffrey Chaucer was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for The Canterbury Tales . He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the “father of English poetry” Katharine Lee Bates studied Chaucer at Oxford and was an expert on his work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Chaucer
Cleveland, Grover (March 18, 1837 – June 24, 1908)
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22 nd and 24 th president of the United States, from 1885 to 1889 and again from 1893 to 1897. He was the first Democrat to win election to the presidency after the Civil War and the first of two U.S. presidents to serve nonconsecutive terms. He also joined the anti-imperialist movement against the Spanish American War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grover_Cleveland
Coman, Katharine (November 23, 1857 – January 11, 1915)
Katharine Ellis Coman was an American social activist and professor. At Wellesley College she created new courses in political economy, in line with her personal belief in social change. As dean, she established a new department of economics and sociology and is often considered the founder of the academic discipline of industrial sociology. She was Katharine Lee Bates romantic partner from 1890 until Coman’s death from cancer in 1915.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Coman
Durant, Henry Fowle (February 20, 1822 – October 3, 1881)
Henry Fowle Durant (born Henry Welles Smith) was an American lawyer and philanthropist, as well as the co-founder, with his wife, Pauline Durant, of Wellesley Female Seminary, which became Wellesley College.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Fowle_Durant
Goldman, Emma (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940)
Emma Goldman was a Lithuanian-born anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europe in the first half of the 20th century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman
Harrison, Benjamin (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901)
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd president of the United States , serving from 1889 to 1893. He was a member of the Harrison family of Virginia —a grandson of the ninth president, William Henry Harrison , and a great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison V , a Founding Father . A Union Army veteran and a Republican, Harrison defeated incumbent Grover Cleveland to win the presidency in 1888. He joined Cleveland as part of the anti-imperialist movement.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Harrison
Hazard, Caroline (June 10, 1856 – March 19, 1945)
Caroline Hazard was an American educator, philanthropist, and author. She served as the fifth president of Wellesley College, from 1899 to 1910 and traveled to the Middle East with Bates in 1906.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Hazard
Hearst, William Randolph (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951)
William Randolph Hearst Sr. was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation’s largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism in violation of ethics and standards influenced the nation’s popular media by emphasizing sensationalism. He was instrumental in building up American support for the Spanish American War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Randolph_Hearst
Lincoln, Abraham (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States , serving from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War , defending the nation as a constitutional union , defeating the Confederacy , playing a major role in the abolition of slavery , expanding the power of the federal government , and modernizing the U.S. economy . His assassination in 1865 was Katharine Lee Bates’ first memory.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Lincoln
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882)
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems
“Paul Revere’s Ride” &” The Song of Hiawatha,” and “Evangeline.” Longfellow was born in Portland , Maine. He graduated from Bowdoin College and became a professor there and, later, at Harvard College after studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections were Voices of the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841). He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and lived the remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts , where Bates met him in 1879..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow
McKinley, William (January 29, 1843 – September 14, 1901)
William McKinley was the 25 th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely dominant in the industrial states and nationwide for decades. He successfully led the U.S. into the Spanish-American War, overseeing a period of American expansionism, with the annexations of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines and Hawaii. His imperialist ambitions were opposed by Katharine Lee Bates and immortalized in her words, “America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self-control..”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_McKinley
Nation, Carrie Amelia (November 25, 1846 – June 9, 1911)
Caroline Amelia Nation often referred to as Carrie Nation, or Hatchet Granny, was an American who was a radical member of the temperance movement, which opposed alcohol before the advent of Prohibition. Nation is noted for attacking alcohol-serving establishments (most often taverns) with a hatchet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Nation
Theodore Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919)
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. also known as Teddy or T. R., was the 26 th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York politics, including serving as the state’s 33rd governor for two years. He served as the 25th vice president under President William McKinley for six months in 1901, assuming the presidency after McKinley's assassination. As president,
Roosevelt emerged as a leader of the Republican Party and became a driving force for anti-trust and Progressive policies. Roosevelt advocated the seizure of colonies during the Spanish American and Philippine American War, imperialistic ambitions that were opposed by Katharine Lee Bates and many other Americans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Roosevelt
Scudder, Vida (December 15, 1861 – October 9, 1954)
Julia Vida Dutton Scudder was an American educator, writer, welfare activist and follower of St. Francis, in the social gospel movement. Scudder taught English literature from 1887 at Wellesley College, where she became an associate professor in 1892 and full professor in 1910. Part of Katharine Lee Bates’ department and an avowed Christian Socialist, Vida joined the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, turning some wealthy donors against Wellesley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vida_Dutton_Scudder
Shakespeare, William (April 1564 – 23 April 1616)
William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon” (or simply “the Bard”). Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted. Katharine Lee Bates taught many courses about Shakespeare, one of her favorite writers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare
Twain, Mark (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, and essayist. He was praised as the “greatest humorist the United States has produced” with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." Mark Twain called the era “The Gilded Age.” The rich lived in luxury, while the poor, arriving by the millions, grew destitute. He was a leader of the anti-imperialist movement that opposed the Spanish Civil War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
Washington, Booker T. (April 5, 1856 – November 14, 1915)
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, author, and orator. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was a primary leader in the African-American community and an advocate of education and equality for Blacks. Born into slavery, Washington was freed during the Civil War. With Bates and others, he was a vocal opponent of the Spanish American War.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booker_T._Washington
Whitman, Walt (May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892)
Walter Whitman Jr. was an American poet, essayist, and journalist; he also wrote two novels. He is considered one of the most influential poets in American literature. Whitman incorporated both transcendentalism and realism in his writings and is often called the father of free verse. His poetry often focused on both loss and healing. I hear America Singing was among his most famous poems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman
Wilson, Woodrow (December 28, 1856 – February 3, 1924)
Thomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28 th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921. He was the only Democrat to serve as president during the Progressive Era when Republicans dominated the presidency and legislative branches. As president, Wilson changed the nation’s economic policies and led the United States into World War I. He was the leading architect of the League of Nations, receiving strong support from Katharine Lee Bates.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodrow_Wilson
HISTORICAL EVENTS
Revolutionary War, 1775-1783
The American Revolutionary War also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was an armed conflict that was part of the broader American Revolution, in which American Patriot forces organized as the Continental Army and commanded by George Washington defeated the British Army. The conflict was fought in North America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic Ocean. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris (1783), which resulted in Great Britain ultimately recognizing the independence of the United States of America. Bates immortalizes Revolutionary War soldiers in AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolutionary_War
Civil War, 1861-1865
The American Civil War was a civil war in the United States between the Union (“the North”) and the Confederacy (“the South”), which was formed in 1861 by states that had seceded from the Union. The central conflict leading to war was a dispute over whether slavery should be permitted to expand into the western territories, leading to more slave states, or be prohibited from doing so, which many believed would place slavery on a course of ultimate extinction. Decades of controversy over slavery came to a head when Abraham Lincoln, who opposed slavery’s expansion, won the 1860 presidential election. Bates was moved by the men in her village who died to end slavery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War
Slavery abolition, 1863
Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, was the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was France in 1315, but it was later used in its colonies. In the United States, Pennsylvania and Vermont were the first states to abolish slavery, Vermont in 1777 and Pennsylvania in 1780 (Vermont did not join the Union until 1791). By 1804, the rest of the northern states had abolished slavery but it remained legal in southern states. By 1808, the United States outlawed the importation of slaves but did not ban slavery – except as a punishment – until 1865. The 13 th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect in December 1865, seven months after the end of the war, and finally ended slavery for non-criminals throughout the United States. It also abolished slavery among the Indian tribes, including the Alaska tribes that became part of the U.S. in 1867.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abolitionism_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/slavery-abolished/
President Lincoln assassination, 1865
Lincoln’s support for Black rights proved fatal. Soon after the Civil War ended, President Abraham Lincoln gave a speech that argued for Black men and veterans to have the right to vote. John Wilkes Booth was in the audience. Enraged that Lincoln supported Black citizenship, Booth vowed, “That is the last speech he will ever make.” Booth shot Lincoln three days later. He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated. Bates was five when Lincoln was assassinated and always remembered her mother’s grief.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln
https://www.indianamuseum.org/blog-post/why-booth-shot-lincoln/
Settlement House Movement, 1890s
The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity and social connection. Its main object was the establishment of “settlement houses'“ in poor urban areas, in which volunteer middle-class ‘settlement workers” would live, hoping to share knowledge and culture with, and alleviate the poverty of, their low-income neighbors. The settlement movement model was introduced in the United States by Jane Addams after traveling to Europe and learning about the system in England. Katharine Lee Bates helped establish Denison House, a settlement house in Boston, in 1892.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_movement
Economic depression of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was an economic depression in the United States. It began in February 1893 and officially ended eight months later, but the effects from it continued to be felt until 1897. It was the most serious economic depression in our history until the Great Depression of the 1930s. The Panic of 1893 deeply affected every sector of the economy and produced political upheaval that led to the political realignment and the presidency of William McKinley. Katharine Lee Bates mourned its impact on the poor as she traveled across the US in 1893. She yearned for an America “undimmed by human tears.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1893
Worlds Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893
The World’s Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, was a world’s fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, held in Jackson Park, was a large water pool representing the voyage that Columbus took to the New World. Chicago won the right to host the fair over several competing cities, including New York City, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. The exposition was an influential social and cultural event and had a profound effect on American architecture, the arts, American industrial optimism, and Chicago's image. Bates visited its White City in 1893, immortalizing it in AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World%27s_Columbian_Exposition
Cripple Creek mining camp—Colorado Gold Rush, 1893
The Pike’s Peak gold rush (later known as the Colorado gold rush) was the boom in gold prospecting and mining in the Pike’s Peak Country of western Kansas Territory and southwestern Nebraska Territory of the United States that began in July 1858 and lasted until roughly the creation of the Colorado Territory on February 28, 1861. An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history. Bates was appalled by the greed she saw in Cripple Creek in 1893, writing “America, America, May God thy Gold Refine” in her famous anthem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike%27s_Peak_gold_rush
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cripple_Creek_Gold_Rush
Battle of Manila Bay, 1898
The Battle of Manila Bay also known as the Battle of Cavite, took place on May 1, 1898, during the Spanish-American War. The battle took place in Manila Bay in the Philippines, and was the first major engagement of the Spanish–American War. The battle was one of the most decisive naval battles in history and marked the end of the Spanish colonial period in Philippine history.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manila_Bay
The Maine explosion, 1898
Maine was a United States Navy ship that sank in Havana Harbor on 15 February 1898, contributing to the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April. U.S. newspapers, engaging in yellow journalism to boost circulation, and falsely claimed that the Spanish were responsible for the ship’s destruction. The “Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!” became a rallying cry for action. Although the Maine explosion was not a direct cause, it served as a catalyst that accelerated the events leading up to the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(1889
Spanish-American war, 1898-1900
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – December 10, 1898) was fought between Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the U.S. Acquiring sovereignty over Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, and establishing a protectorate over Cuba. It represented U.S. intervention in the Cuban War of Independence and Philippine Revolution, with the latter later leading to the Philippine-American War. The Spanish–American War brought an end to almost four centuries of Spanish presence in the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific; the United States meanwhile not only became a major world power, but also gained several island possessions spanning the globe, which provoked rancorous debate over the wisdom of expansionism. Katharine Lee Bates was very opposed to the war, as part of the anti-imperialist movement in Boston.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish-American_War
Philippine-American war, 1901-1904
The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish-American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed the Philippine Islands under the Treaty of Paris. Philippine nationalists constituted the First Philippine Republic in January 1899, seven months after signing the Philippine Declaration of Independence. The United States did not recognize either event as legitimate, and tensions escalated until fighting commenced on February 4, 1899, in the Battle of Manila. Bates wrote angry poems against the US slaughter of Filipinos during the war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_American_War
Bread and Roses Strike, Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1912
The Lawrence Textile Strike, also known as the Bread and Roses Strike, was a strike of immigrant workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in 1912 led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Prompted by a pay cut, the strike spread rapidly through the town, growing to more than twenty thousand workers and involving nearly every mill in Lawrence. Bates sympathized with the strikers and her colleague Vida Scudder joined them on the picket lines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1912_Lawrence_textile_strike
Great War—World War I, 1914-1918
World War I (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting took place mainly in Europe and the Middle East, as well as in parts of Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and in Europe was characterized by trench warfare; the widespread use of artillery, machine guns, and chemical weapons (gas); and the introductions of tanks and aircraft. World War I was one of the deadliest conflict in history, resulting in an estimated 10 million military dead and more than 20 million wounded, plus some 10 million civilian dead from causes including genocide. The movement of large numbers of people was a major factor in the deadly Spanish flu pandemic. Though Bates initially opposed the war and wrote poems mourning it, she eventually joined other Wellesley faculty in supporting Woodrow Wilson’s entry into the war, fearing German armies would destroy European civilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I
Woman Suffrage, 1920
Women’s suffrage, or the right of women to vote, was established in the United States over the course of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, first in various states and localities, then nationally in 1920 with the ratification of the 19 th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The bill providing for voting rights for women, was first introduce in Congress in 1878 and took 42 years to pass. Bates was active in the movement for Woman Suffrage.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States
SPECIFIC EXPRESSIONS
America The Beautiful – the story
“America the Beautiful” began as a poem by Katharine Lee Bates and its music was composed by church organist and choirmaster Samuel A. Ward at Grace Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, though the two never met. The poem was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical, The Congregationalist. At that time, the poem was titled “America'“ Ward had initially composed the song’s melody in 1882 to accompany lyrics to '“Materna” basis of the hymn, “O Mother dear, Jerusalem", though the hymn was not first published until 1892. The combination of Ward’s melody and Bates’s poem was first entitled “America the Beautiful” in 1910. The song has often been proposed to be America’s National Anthem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/america-beautiful-1893
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/america-the-beautiful
https://www.nerdintheword.com/america-beautiful-youve-never-heard/
Armistice of 1918
An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed in a railroad car, in the Compiègne Forest near the town of Compiegne, France, that ended fighting on land, at sea, and in the air in World War I.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armistice_of_11_November_1918
Bates’ church in Falmouth, MA
In the center of Falmouth, Massachusetts is the First Congregational Church with its white spire. Bates’ father became a minister there in 1858 but died a year later, just four weeks after Katharine was born. One of her first memories is of how the women of Falmouth covered the church walls with their black shawls after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
https://woodsholemuseum.org/oldpages/sprtsl/v23n2-KLBPlay.pdf
https://firstcongregationalfalmouth.org/our-mission-and-history
Buffalo slaughter
Hunting of the American bison, also commonly known as the American buffalo, was an activity fundamental to the economy and society of the Indian peoples who inhabited the vast grasslands on the Interior Plains of North America, before the animal’s near-extinction in the late 19th century following United States’ expansion into the West. Bison hunting was an important spiritual practice and source of material for these groups, especially after the European introduction of the horse in the 16th through 19th centuries enabled new hunting techniques. The species’ dramatic decline was the result of habitat loss due to the expansion of ranching and farming in western North America, industrial-scale hunting practiced by settler hunters, increased Indigenous hunting pressure due to settler demand for bison hides and meat, and cases of a deliberate policy by settler governments to destroy the food source of the Indigenous peoples during times of conflict. Katharine Lee Bates wrote often of the injustice toward Native peoples that was part of Westward expansion in the US.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bison_hunting
Child labor
Child labor in the United States was a common phenomenon across the economy in the 19th century. Outside agriculture, it gradually declined in the early 20th century, except in the South which added children in textile and other industries. Child labor remained common in the agricultural sector until compulsory school laws were enacted by the states. In the North, state laws prohibited work in mines and later in factories. A national law was passed in 1916 but it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1918. A 1919 law was also overturned. In the 1920s an effort to pass a constitutional amendment failed, because of opposition from the South and from Catholics. Outside of farming child labor was steadily declining in the 20th century and the New Deal in 1938 finally ended child labor in factories and mines. Child labor has always been a factor in agriculture and that continues into the 21st century.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor_in_the_United_States
Founding Fathers
The Founding Fathers of the United States, often simply referred to as the Founding Fathers or the Founders, were a group of late-18th-century American revolutionary leaders who united the Thirteen Colonies, oversaw the War of Independence from Great Britain, established the United States of America, and crafted a framework of government for the new nation. The Founding Fathers include those who signed the United States Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the United States Constitution and other founding documents; it can also be applied to certain military personnel who fought in the American Revolution. Bates honors them and the ordinary people who fought for the revolution in AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States
“The Gilded Age”
In United States history , the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era . It was named by 1920s historians after Mark Twain’s 1873 novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Historians saw late 19th-century economic expansion as a time of materialistic excesses marked by widespread political corruption .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age
Immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country different from their birth or current habitation, in order to settle as permanent residents . Millions of immigrants came to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Bates was trouble by the exploitation of these people and helped start a settlement house in Boston to assist them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration
Imperialism
Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism , employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power ( diplomatic power and cultural imperialism ). Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining hegemony and a more or less formal empire. While related to the concept of colonialism , imperialism is a distinct concept that can apply to other forms of expansion and many forms of government. The McKinley era in the US was one of imperialistic expansion, a policy that deeply troubled Bates, who criticizes it—“America, America, God mend thine every flaw. Confirm thy soul in self- control…” in AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism
Industrial Workers of the World—the Wobblies
The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed “Wobblies”, is an international labor union founded in Chicago in 1905. The nickname’s origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with industrial unionism , as it is a general union, subdivided between the various industries which employ its members. The philosophy and tactics of the IWW are described as “revolutionary industrial unionism”, with ties to socialist , syndicalist , and anarchist labor movements. The IWW led the Lawrence Textile Strike of 1912, discussed in the film FROM SEA TO SHINING SEA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Workers_of_the_World
Kaiser’s armies
The Imperial German Army was the military force of the German Empire under the control of Kaiser Wilhelm II who was the overall commander of the Imperial German Army. Wilhelm II was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty 's 300-year rule of Prussia. Bates and her fellow faculty members at Wellesley feared that the Kaiser’s armies would destroy European civilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_German_Army
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II
League of Nations
The League of Nations was the first worldwide intergovernmental organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace . It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War . The main organization ceased operations on 18 April 1946 when many of its components were relocated into the new United Nations (UN). As the template for modern global governance, the League profoundly shaped the modern world. Katharine Lee Bates was a strong supporter of the League and was devastated when the US Senate refused to allow the US to enter the League.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Nations
Smallpox and its impact
Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by a virus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) certified the global eradication of the disease in 1980, making smallpox the only human disease to have been eradicated to date. The initial symptoms of the disease included fever and vomiting. This was followed by formation of ulcers in the mouth and a skin rash . Over a number of days, the skin rash turned into the characteristic fluid-filled blisters with a dent in the center. The bumps then scabbed over and fell off, leaving scars. Vaccination against smallpox was effective as early as 1796 for the US military. KLB was forced to quarantine because of smallpox exposure in 1888.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_smallpox
Sweatshops
A sweatshop is a crowded workplace with very poor or illegal working conditions, including few if any breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting and ventilation, or uncomfortably or dangerously high or low temperatures. The work may be difficult, tiresome, dangerous, climatically challenging, or underpaid. Employees in sweatshops may work long hours with unfair wages, regardless of laws mandating overtime pay or a minimum wage ; child labor laws may also be violated. Women make up 85 to 90% of sweatshop workers and may be forced by employers to take birth control and routine pregnancy tests to avoid supporting maternity leave or providing health benefits. While less common today, sweatshops were very prevalent during Bates’ life. Her partner, Katharine Coman, documented the pain and deaths caused by them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweatshop
https://www.britannica.com/topic/sweatshop
Tenement houses
In the United States, the term tenement initially meant a large building with multiple small spaces to rent. As cities grew in the nineteenth century, there was increasing separation between rich and poor . With rapid urban growth and immigration , overcrowded houses with poor sanitation gave tenements a reputation as shanty towns. The expression “tenement house” was used to designate a building subdivided to provide cheap rental accommodation, which was initially a subdivision of a large house. Bates wrote about the horrible lives in the tenement houses in her novel, ROSE AND THORN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenement
https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/tenements
Transcontinental Railroad
America’s first transcontinental Railroad (known originally as the “Pacific Railroad” and later as the “Overland Route”) was a 1,911-mile continuous railroad line built between 1863 and 1869 that connected the existing eastern U.S. rail network at Council Bluffs, Iowa , with the Pacific coast at the Oakland Long Wharf on San Francisco Bay . The rail line was built by three private companies over public lands provided by extensive U.S. land grants . Bates traveled by railroad from Boston to Colorado and back in 1893.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_transcontinental_railroad
Treatment of American Indians
Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, which was conceived to allow for the United States to sell lands inhabited by the Native nations to settlers willing to move into that area. Native American nations on the plains in the west engaged in armed defense of their lands with the United States throughout the 19th century, through what were called the “Indian Wars.” Often treaties signed with the tribes were broken by the United States. Katharine Lee Bates often wrote of the mistreatment of the Indians, which she first observed personally in her hometown of Falmouth, Masachusetts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Native_Americans_in_the_United_States
https://www.history.com/news/native-americans-genocide-united-states
Yellow Clover
In 1922, Bates published Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance, a collection of poems she addressed to her partner Katharine Coman after Coman’s death. She dedicated the volume to Coman, and included as a “Prefatory Note” a three-page biography of Coman largely focused on her career as an economist and historian, but written in a tone personal enough to allow a reference to her “vigorous and adventurous personality” and her “undaunted courage” in continuing to work during her final illness. Bates was devastated by the death of Coman, her life partner from 1890 until 1915.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Lee_Bates
https://allpoetry.com/Yellow-Clover
Yellow Journalism
In journalism , yellow journalism means the use of eye-catching headlines and sensationalized exaggerations for increased sales. The Hearst Empire employed Yellow Journalism to win support for the Spanish American and Philippine American wars.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
SONGS IN THE FILM FROM BATES’ ERA
Because many popular songs from Bates’s era are in the public domain, our composer, Michael Bade, arranged them to use as background in the film. We tried to use them in the eras when they were most popular or when they were written. Katharine Lee Bates re-wrote AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL several times in response to historical events and to improve the words.
America The Beautiful – full text of the song in 1893, 1904 and 1911 versions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_the_Beautiful
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/america-beautiful-1893
https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/america-the-beautiful
https://www.nerdintheword.com/america-beautiful-youve-never-heard/
After the Ball, 1891
“After the Ball” was a popular song with music and lyrics by Charles K. Harris . In the song, an uncle tells his niece why he has never married. He saw his sweetheart kissing another man at a ball, and he refused to listen to her explanation. Many years later, after the woman had died, he discovered that the man was her brother.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_the_Ball_(song
Beautiful Dreamer, 1864
“Beautiful Dreamer” is a romantic song by American songwriter Stephen Foster . It was published posthumously in March 1864. The song tells of a lover serenading a “Beautiful Dreamer” who is oblivious to worldly cares and may actually be dead.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beautiful_Dreamer
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean
“Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” (originally “Columbia, the Land of the Brave”) is a militaristic American patriotic song which was popular in the U.S. during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Composed in 1843, it was long used as an unofficial national anthem of the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia,_the_Gem_of_the_Ocean
The Church in the Wildwood, 1857
“The Church in the Wildwood” is a song that was written by Dr. William S. Pitts in 1857 following a coach ride that stopped in Bradford, Iowa. It is a song about a church in a valley near the town, though the church was not actually built until several years later. In the years since, the church has become known simply as “the Little Brown Church”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_in_the_Wildwood
Drunken Sailor
“Sailor” also known as “What Shall We Do with a/the Drunken Sailor?” or “Up She Rises”, is a traditional sea shanty . It was sung aboard sailing ships at least as early as the 1830s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunken_Sailor
Just Before the Battle, Mother
“Just before the Battle, Mother”was a popular song during the American Civil War , particularly among troops in the Union Army . It was written and published by Chicago -based George F. Root . It was also a popular song with adherents of the Primrose League in England , and was a central part of Victoria Day celebrations in Canada during the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Before_the_Battle,_Mother
Maple Leaf Rag, 1899
The “Maple Leaf Rag”was a ragtime musical composition for piano composed by Scott Joplin . It was one of Joplin’s early works, becoming the model for ragtime compositions by subsequent composers. It is one of the most famous of all ragtime pieces. Its success led to Joplin being dubbed the “King of Ragtime” by his contemporaries. The piece gave Joplin a steady if unspectacular income for the rest of his life.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_Leaf_Rag
My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean
Although the song’s origin is uncertain, its original subject could be Charles Edward Stuart (‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’). After the defeat of the Prince at the Battle of Culloden in 1746 and his subsequent exile, his Jacobite supporters could have sung this song or one like it in his honor; and thanks to the ambiguity of the term “Bonnie”, which can refer to a woman as well as to a man, they could pretend it was a love song.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Bonnie_Lies_over_the_Ocean
My Country Tis of Thee
“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee”, also known as simply “America”, is an American patriotic song, the lyrics of which were written by Samuel Francis Smith . The song served as one of the de facto national anthems of the United States (along with songs like “Hail, Columbia”) before the adoption of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the official U.S. national anthem in 1931. The melody used is adapted from the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the King”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country,_%27Tis_of_Thee
My Grandfather’s Clock, 1876
“My Grandfather’s Clock” was written by Henry Clay Work , the author of “Marching Through Georgia”. It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands , and is also popular in bluegrass music . In 1905, the earliest known recording of this song was performed by Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet (known then as the “Edison Quartet”). The song, told from a grandchild’s point of view, is about his grandfather’s clock. The clock is purchased on the morning of the grandfathe'r’s birth and works perfectly for 90 years, requiring only that it be wound at the end of each week. After the grandfather dies, the clock suddenly stops, and never works again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Grandfather%27s_Clock
Over There, 1917
“Over There'“ was a war song written by George M. Cohan that was popular with the United States military and the American public during World War I and World War II . Written shortly after the American entry into World War I , “Over There” is a patriotic propaganda song intended to galvanize American men to enlist in the American Expeditionary Forces and fight the Central Powers. The song is best remembered for a line in its chorus: “The Yanks are coming” In the film, we hear an excerpt from the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_There
She’ll be Coming ’Round the Mountain, 1892
“She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” is a traditional folk song often sung for children. The song is derived from the Christian spiritual known as “When the Chariot Comes”. The first appearance of “She’ll Be Comin’ Round the Mountain” in print was in Carl Sandburg’s “The American Songbag in 1927.” Sandburg reports that the Negro spiritual “When the Chariot Comes”, which was sung to the same melody, was adapted by railroad workers in the Midwestern United States during the 1890s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She%27ll_Be_Coming_%27Round_the_Mountain
The Caissons go Rolling Along, 1908
“The Army Goes Rolling Along" is the official song of the United States Army and is typically called “The Army Song”. The original version of this song, written in 1908 by Edmund Gruber , was titled “The Caissons Go Rolling Along.” Those lyrics differ from the current official version. Gruber’s version was transformed into a march by John Philip Sousa in 1917 and renamed the “U.S. Field Artillery March.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Army_Goes_Rolling_Along
Yankee Doodle
“Yankee Doodle” is a traditional song and nursery rhyme , the early versions of which predate the Seven Years’ War and American Revolutionary War . It is often sung patriotically in the United States today. It is the state song of the U.S. state of Connecticut .