1976
America the Beautiful
July 1976


“America the Beautiful,” New Era, July 1976, 19

America the Beautiful

This year, as America celebrates 200 years as a free nation, the New Era presents a special photographic essay in thanks for what she means to all of us. America has many faces: her mountains, forests, and fertile valleys; her cities, towns, and homes; her majesty; her solitude; and her people. They are captured for you in these next few pages by photographer Gordon Sandbach. America is the land of promise, and as you read the words of that great hymn, “America the Beautiful,” travel with us to her seacoasts, her mountains, her cities, her beautiful and quiet places, and join with us in a special thanks for the blessings that are America.

Oh beautiful for spacious skies …

For amber waves of grain …

For purple mountain majesties …

Above the fruited plain …

God shed his grace on thee …

From sea to shining sea …

Oh beautiful for pilgrim feet …

Across the wilderness …

Oh beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife …

Who more than self their country loved …

Thine alabaster cities gleam …

And crown thy good with brotherhood …

May God thy gold refine …

Till all success be nobleness …

A waterfall in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Ancient dwellings at Pecos National Monument, New Mexico

Echo Cliffs near Page, Arizona

Monument Valley, Arizona

Rolling farmland in Tennessee

A barn in Boulder, Colorado

Kansas wheat fields

The sun seen through a colored fabric at Novato, California

A cloud-covered valley in Yosemite National Park

The Wasatch Range from behind an old barn in Spanish Fork, Utah

A farm near Ellsworth, Maine

A tree-lined drive near Concord, New Hampshire

Ranch lands near Fairplay, Colorado

A stream running through Yellowstone National Park

A wooded lake near Hopkington, New Hampshire

Summer flowers in Aspen, Colorado

A congregation of Saguaros near Tucson, Arizona

Lobster pots near Rockland, Maine

A fisherman repairs his boat in Monterey, California

Waves hitting a beach at Southampton, New York

Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts

Masts of fishing boats at Camden, Maine

A horse-drawn plow in the Tennessee farmlands

Windmill in Cape Cod, Massachusetts

A public bench in New York City

A snow-swept plain near Daniel, Wyoming

A girl traveling across the country in a bus

Hills of eastern Colorado

A frame cabin in Aspen, Colorado

A flag painted on a rock near Manchester, New York

Flag flying in Washington, D.C.

Flags at half-mast at the Washington Monument shortly after the death of President Johnson

A cemetery in Old Saybrook, Connecticut

The Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C.

A barred window in Greenwich Village, New York City

Winter in midtown Manhattan

The New York City skyline

Interstate 10 west of Los Angeles

A laborer takes a break

A New York City hansom cab driver

A lady in Central Park, New York City

A softball player in Central Park

Switchbacks on the road up Pikes Peak

An autumn-golden tree in Colorado

Barren cliffs in southwestern Nebraska

A Grand Canyon vista

Giant tree in Sequoia National Park

Navajo woman, Red Lake, Arizona

Saddle bronc rider leaving the chute in Colorado

Fisherman in Southampton, New York