This is just the beginning! Our collection holds over 300 years of history, including rare newspapers, obituaries, marriage records, birth records, and so much more—most of which you won’t find anywhere else!
History of American patriotic songs and their origins
A tour through the origins of key anthems and hymns. It covers The Star Spangled Banner origins and 1931 designation, J. Stafford Smith’s Anacreon in Heaven tune, America by Samuel F. Smith, The Battle Hymn of the Republic by Julia Ward Howe, America the Beautiful by Katharine Lee Bates, God Bless America by Irving Berlin, and Kate Smith’s 1938 premiere with Eisenhower funding in 1955 Medal of Honor presentation.
MENTIONED IN THIS ARTICLE
Joseph Hopper Nicholson
Key
Heaven
John Stafford Smith
Baltimore
Congress
America
Samuel F. Smith
Dr Smith
Smith
Nations
Great Britain
Austria
England
Park Street
Boston
John Brown
Harper's Ferry
Boston Harbor
William Steffe
Julia Ward Howe
Samuel G. Howe
United States Sanitary Commission
Washington, D.C
James Freeman Clarke
Waile
Washington
Howes
Dr. Clarke
Mrs. Howe
Atlantic Monthly
Katharine Lee Bates
Colorado
Pike's Peak
Congregational
Samuel Ward
Newark, N J
Kate Smith
Berlin
Europe
Army Review
Dwight Eisenhower