1819-1910
American writer and suffragette Julia Ward Howe was born on this day in New York City. She came by her writing skills honestly, as her mother (who died when Julia was just five years of age) was also a poet. Though raised a Episcopalian with a strict Calvinist father, Howe became a progressive Unitarian in adulthood. This is a good example of her philosophies and thought processes. An avid student of languages, Howe wrote plays, poems and scolarly essays. Many works were published. However, despite all of her activism and studies in life, today she is remembered mostly for her abolitionist song Battle Hymn of the Republic (or "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory); the music that she based the song on was a powerful choice--John Brown's Body (also known as "John Brown's Song") was a marching song based on the abolitionist John Brown. It is this song that ALL of her contributions to film and television are based on. The first of these is the only film to actually be based on the song; The Battle Hymn of the Republic was a Vitagraph short film dating from 1911 that dramatized the writing of the song, with Ralph Ince playing Abraham Lincoln and Maurice Costello playing Jesus Christ. The only other film that was made during the silent era using this work, this time in the capacity of soundtrack materials, came in 1927. Uncle Tom's Cabin was a Universal partial silent (that was more widely released as a full silent) that used the song--amongst many others--utilizing the MovieTone sound system. The film was directed by Harry A. Pollard and marked the film debut of a ten year old Virginia Grey. Since the release of this film, the song has only been featured in soundtrack materials only. The first full sound film in which it was featured came in D. W. Griffith's 1930 Abraham Lincoln (which, incidentally, also used the MovieTone system). The song made it debut on television in a 1953 episode of "Death Valley Days" (Land of the Free). It has since been used in a whole host of different ways and genres of films; from How The West Was Won to Young Frankenstein, Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid To Ask to The Seventh Sign. The same breadth of genres are seen in it's use on the small screen as well; from "Branded" to "The Monkeys", "M*A*S*H" to "The Rea & Stimpy Show". In fact, it's most recent use came in the series "Watchmen" in 2019. After a VERY long and productive life, Howe passed away of pneumonia on the 17th of October in Portsmouth, Rhode Island at the age of 91. She is buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA (Boston was her adopted home town and the city that she raised her family in). By all means, check out the links below and also take a gander at the "legacy" section of Wikipedia--impressive seems too slight a word! One very important accomplishment worth highlighting occurred two years before her death; on the 28th of January, 1908, Howe became the very first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
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| [Source: Sharon Lavash Hawkins-Find A Grave] |
Find A Grave entry
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