Hail Columbia!
Jul. 4th, 2016 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdIt's the Fourth of July, a fine time for rediscovering Columbia.
In the 19th century, Columbia was the female personification of the United States. The name first appeared in the 1730s. She appears here and there in Phyllis Wheatley's poetry of the late 18th century
Our unofficial national anthem:
Scotland has "Scots Wha Hae", England has "Rule Brittania", and we have "Columbia Gem of the Ocean." (I first heard it referenced in a Ray Bradbury story: Mars is Heaven)
Columbia is a common place name, and even our capital, the District of Columbia, bears it. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, in Chicago, is a popular location and theme for steampunk stories.
It was popularized during our neo-classical phase, when Roman style architecture and symbols were common.
She gradually fell out of use in the 1920s and was replaced by Lady Liberty. When Columbia pictures created their trademark, she looked like Columbia, but carried Liberty's torch, which Columbia did not. These days, she is seldom seen. As Christopher Columbus falls further out of favor, she may go away altogether, and be replaced entirely with Liberty.
A WWI poster, showing her as a matial goddess, wearin Liberty's crown, and calling on the Boy Scouts.
In the painting Manifest Destiny, she oversees the Westward Migration.
John Adams: It doesn't matter. I won't be in the history books anyway, only you. Franklin did this and Franklin did that and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them - Franklin, Washington, and the horse - conducted the entire revolution by themselves.
In the 19th century, Columbia was the female personification of the United States. The name first appeared in the 1730s. She appears here and there in Phyllis Wheatley's poetry of the late 18th century
Our unofficial national anthem:
Scotland has "Scots Wha Hae", England has "Rule Brittania", and we have "Columbia Gem of the Ocean." (I first heard it referenced in a Ray Bradbury story: Mars is Heaven)
Columbia is a common place name, and even our capital, the District of Columbia, bears it. The World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, in Chicago, is a popular location and theme for steampunk stories.
It was popularized during our neo-classical phase, when Roman style architecture and symbols were common.
She gradually fell out of use in the 1920s and was replaced by Lady Liberty. When Columbia pictures created their trademark, she looked like Columbia, but carried Liberty's torch, which Columbia did not. These days, she is seldom seen. As Christopher Columbus falls further out of favor, she may go away altogether, and be replaced entirely with Liberty.
A WWI poster, showing her as a matial goddess, wearin Liberty's crown, and calling on the Boy Scouts.
In the painting Manifest Destiny, she oversees the Westward Migration.
John Adams: It doesn't matter. I won't be in the history books anyway, only you. Franklin did this and Franklin did that and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them - Franklin, Washington, and the horse - conducted the entire revolution by themselves.
