Boston-born Baptist minister and academic (1808–1895) best known as the lyricist of “America” (“My Country ’Tis of Thee”), written while he was a student at Andover Theological Seminary. Smith’s stirring patriotic song, set to the same melody as the British national anthem (“God Save the Queen”), served as a de facto national anthem for much of the nineteenth century. Impressive AQS on a lightly lined off-white 7.5 x 9.75 sheet expertly inlaid into a larger sheet, signed “S. F. Smith” and dated September 1864. Smith pens a copy of his poem “The American Flag in Nature.” In part: “All nature sings wildly the song of the free,/The red, white, and blue float o’er land and o’er sea;/The white—in each billow that breaks on the shore,/The blue—in the arching that canopies o’er/The land of our birth, in its glory outspread—/And sunset dyes deepen and glow into red….” Accompanied by an unsigned period portrait engraving. A few faint, tiny spots to blank lower portion of sheet, and light folds (one touching signature), otherwise fine, bright, crisp condition. LOA John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and R&R COA.
