Wordsmiths: Katherine Lee Bates

Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) was a poet, professor, and social reformer. She authored the poem “America the Beautiful,” which was adapted into a song and adopted as an American anthem. Katharine was also at the forefront of the settlement house movement alongside her life companion and fellow professor, Katherine Coman.

For Further Reading:

• Greatness Is Not A Given: 'America The Beautiful' Asks How We Can Do Better
• From Sea to Shining Sea

• "America the Beautiful," 1893
• Two ‘Boston Marriages’: Katharine Lee Bates & Katharine Coman and Amy Lowell & Ada Dwyer Russell

This Pride Month, we’re talking about wordsmiths. Women who used language to create community, give a voice to change, and inspire future generations to do the same.

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello. I'm Lauren Williams, a production assistant here at Wonder
Media Network, and I'm excited to be guest hosting this
episode of Womanica. This Pride Month, we're talking about wordsmiths,
women who used language to create community, give voice to change,
and inspire future generations to do the same. Today's Womanniquin

(00:23):
was a professor, poet, and activist who wrote a poem
that would become one of the best known patriotic anthems
in America. Please welcome Katherine Lee Bates. Katherine Bates was
born in eighteen fifty nine in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Just about

(00:44):
a month after she was born, her father died. That
left Catherine and her three siblings to be raised by
her mother and aunt. The women figured out how to
make a living by selling asparagus and eggs and trading
within their own community. Catherine described as neighbourly socialism. Catherine
attended high school and studied hard to pass her college

(01:06):
entrance exams. At Wellesley College, she was class president and
her classmates gave her the title Katie of eighty. After
graduating in eighteen eighty, Catherine began working as a teacher.
By eighteen eighty six, Catherine had returned to her alma
mater as an instructor. That's where she met another Catherine,
Katherine Coman, a professor and social reformer. This relationship deeply

(01:33):
influenced Katherine Bates, who started developing social reformist ideals of
her own. The two eventually grew closer and moved in together.
They were active in the settlement house movement, and later
they co founded a woman run settlement house in Boston
called the Dennison House. All the while Catherine was writing
poetry and fiction. In eighteen eighty nine, she published the

(01:57):
poem Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride. In it,
Missus Claws is portrayed as the lead organizer of Christmas Eve.
Missus Claws had appeared as a character in other literary
works that Catherine was the first to give her such
a prominent role. That same year, Catherine received a prize
for another one of her works, a young adult novel

(02:19):
called Rose and Thorn. The characters in the novel included
poor and working class women and reflected her beliefs as
a social reformer. Catherine cashed her prize money to study
at Oxford University for a year. When she returned to Wellesley,
she received her master's degree, and she was promoted to
a full professor of English literature. In eighteen ninety three,

(02:42):
Catherine went away on another trip that would bring big
changes to her life. She boarded a train and headed
west to teach for the summer in Colorado. On the way,
she stopped at Niagara Falls in Chicago to see the
World's Fair. Catherine spent a lovely summer teaching in Colorado.
After the program came to a close, she and her

(03:04):
fellow teachers went on a climbing expedition. At the base
of Pike's Peak, they loaded up the horse drawn wagons
and mules for their trek up to the top, a
climb of more than fourteen thousand feet. The ascent was
narrow and rocky, and making it to the top was
no small feet. As they climbed, the air grew thinner,

(03:25):
the trees a thicker canopy. Once she arrived at the summit,
Catherine grounded her feet in the dirt and looked out
onto the mountainous landscape. The strong winds at the peak
came rushing with inspiration. To Catherine. It was like a
gateway to heaven, ample skies above, and sea of fertile
land below, the mountains glowing purple. That night in her lodgings,

(03:50):
Catherine put pin to paper and created her most remembered work,
America the Beautiful, a poem that would be adapted into
a song and regarded as one of America's proudest expressions
of patriotism. The national hymn carries an aspirational tone throughout,
asking if America can live up to its ideals. America

(04:13):
the Beautiful was first published on July fourth, eighteen ninety five,
two years after Catherine witnessed the view at Pike's Peak.
The poem turned anthem gained major attention, and within two
decades it had been distributed throughout the United States. One
could find it in church hymnal's, Sunday school's song books,

(04:35):
prayer manuals, and anthologies. Catherine didn't expect the poem to
have such a holdover people, but later she attributed it
to quote the fact that Americans are at heart idealists
with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood. In nineteen fifteen,
after twenty five years of living, traveling, and working together,

(04:59):
Catherine One's companion Catherine Coleman died of breast cancer. Some
referred to their relationship as a romantic one, though no
one knows for sure. There were only a few surviving
letters between the two of them. The letters depict the
deep love and central role the relationship played in Catherine
Bates's life. In one, she wrote, you are always in

(05:20):
my heart and in my longings. It was the living
away from you that made at first the prospect of
leaving Wellesley so heartachey, and it seemed least of all
possible when I had just found the long desired way
to your dearest heart. After Catherine Coman passed, Catherine Bates
began writing Yellow Clover, a book of remembrance, which contained

(05:43):
a series of love poems memorializing their intimate relationship. In
nineteen fifteen, Catherine helped found the New England Poetry Club.
She continued working in social reform for the rest of
her life. The prolific writer retired from Wells's late in
nineteen twenty five, and in nineteen twenty nine she passed away.

(06:09):
All month We're talking about Wordsmiths. For more information, find
us on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcasts. Special thanks
to co creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan for having me
as a guest host. Talk to you tomorrow,