Community Corner

'America the Beautiful' Has Wellesley Roots

Coca-Cola used the song in controversial commercial.

If you’ve watched television in the last week, chances are you’ve seen it—a version of “America the Beautiful” sung in various languages as a way to sell Coca-Cola.

The message is that America has no official language and is beautiful. And drinks Coca-Cola.

In response, some have boycotted the soda company, while others have embraced the advertisement.

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But the Wellesley community can take pride in knowing that one of their own penned the original poem that became the song.

Katharine Lee Bates, a Wellesley College graduate who later became a professor at the school, wrote the poem while on a trip to Colorado Springs in 1893.

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It was later published in 1895 in the Boston Evening Transcript and put to music in 1910.


What do you think about the “America the Beautiful” commercial by Coca-Cola? If you haven't seen it, watch it in the video above. Then tell us in the comments what you think.  



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