This Day In History: July 22, 1893 On July 22, 1893, a young professor of English literature from Wellesley, Massachusetts named Katharine Lee Bates wrote a poem that morphed into one of the most iconic songs in American history. She was traveling cross-country by train to lecture at Colorado College that summer. What she saw along the way inspired her … Continue reading This Day in History: July 22nd- Katharine Bates and Her Little Poem