On Christmas Day 1917, all of Seattle sang ‘America’

December 25, 1917, was Seattle’s first wartime Christmas. Conflict had raged and stagnated across parts of Europe since 1914, but America had only entered the “Great War for Civilization” – nowadays better known as World War I – just months earlier.

The city was booming that autumn. As Christmas approached, the shipbuilding industry, which had employed just 200 people in Seattle in 1915, had grown to more than 18,000 workers, with 20,000 more expected in 1918. Money was flowing into the shops and restaurants that lined the city’s main retail corridor, then located along Second Avenue.

South of town, Camp Lewis had been established, and newly-minted soldiers were pouring in from around the region. Local groups raised money, through events like the Seattle Girls War Relief Bazaar, to support base hospitals and buy Christmas gifts for these young men far from home. Packages poured in by the carload (that’s railroad car, by the way).

It’s not clear exactly who had the idea, but a local group called the Musical Arts Society decided to organize a citywide singing of “America” (the “my country ‘tis of thee” song) for 9:00 am Christmas morning. What’s also not clear is if the Musical Arts Society was a local group or a local chapter of a national group. Some of the Seattle newspaper articles published in advance of Christmas 1917 described the singing of “America” as a national project.

And why sing a patriotic song on Christmas morning and not a Christmas carol? Because the US was officially in the fight overseas, it seemed that many Americans were feeling pretty patriotic. The Yuletide season and its sentiments of “Peace on Earth, Goodwill Towards Men” seemed to fuel public expressions of this love of flag and country in 1917, with events like the sing-along and the presence of plenty of red, white and blue in decorations that year.

As for the specific song choice, in 1917, there was no official United States national anthem (“The Star-Spangled Banner” would get the nod in 1931). “America” had been written by a 22-year old student named Samuel Francis Smith in 1831 and was well-known by most Americans (even though it borrowed its melody from “God Save the King/Queen.” Local historian Edmond S. Meany had a direct connection to Smith’s composition and shared with The Seattle Times his handwritten copy of the song’s lyrics, written out by the composer on Christmas Day 1893. The Times reproduced Meany’s treasure in the pages of the paper to help promote the Christmas Day sing-along.

If any records – first-hand accounts, diary entries, photographs – of the Christmas Day 1917 citywide singing of “America” still exists, they’re hard to track down. The Seattle Times wrote about the event in the afternoon paper on Dec. 25, 1917, but the tone and feel of the short newspaper story make it sound as if the reporter was only guessing what had happened.

Who knows? Maybe somebody reading this story will be inspired to sing “America” this Christmas morning at 9:00 am in Seattle or somewhere around Puget Sound. You might to step outside right around that time on December 25, cup your hand around your ear, and listen carefully to see if you can hear World War I history.

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