America the Beautiful is an American patriotic song. Its lyrics were written 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. Bates wrote the words as a poem, and it was first published in the Fourth of July 1895 edition of the church periodical,
The Congregationalist. At that time, the poem was titled
America.
On 4th July 2018, USPS issued
a 20-stamp sheet where each stamp features a photograph that helps illustrate one of five phrases from the song’s famous first verse: “Spacious Skies,” “Waves of Grain,” “Mountain Majesties,” “The Fruited Plain,” and “Sea to Shining Sea.”
I have got some of the stamps:
Spacious Skies
Mountain Majesties
The Fruited Plains
Sea to Shining Sea