America The Beautiful is written by Katherine Lee Bates.

Inspired by a trip out West, the Wellesley College English professor writes it first as a poem, “Pikes Peak,” that is published in The Congregationalist on July 4, 1895. Revised in 1904 and 1913, the words are subsequently set to a song entitled “Materna” composed by Samuel Ward, a New York church organist and choirmaster. The lyrics and music are published as “America the Beautiful” on October 25, 1910.