For Spacious Skies

Katharine Lee Bates first wrote the lines to America the Beautiful" on a summer evening after a stirring visit to Pikes Peak in 1893. But the story behind the song begins with Katharine herself, who grew up with memories of the country divided by the Civil War and pushed beyond conventional expectations of women to become an acclaimed writer, scholar, suffragist, and reformer. Katharine believed in the power of words to make a difference, and in "America the Beautiful," her vision of the nation as a great family, united from sea to shining sea, continues to uplift and inspire us all"--