Julia Ward Howe was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist and poet. She is most famous as the author of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Born Julia Ward in New York City, on May 27, 1819 she was the fourth of Samuel Ward and Julia Rush Cutler's seven children. Among her siblings was Samuel Cutler Ward. Like many famous authors of her era who lost their mothers when they were young Julia's mother died when she was five. When she was young she became fluent in many languages including Italian, French, German and Greek.
Julia's family heritage ran several generations back through government and leadership positions in the Northeast. As her father was a well-to-do banker, her family was prominent and well off.
In 1843, she married a physician, Dr. Samuel "Chev" Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins Institute for the Blind. The couple made their home in South Boston. Julia had six children, five of whom lived to adulthood. She was active in the Free Soil Party and a member of the Unitarian Church.
Howe's most famous work "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" was set to William Steffe's already-existing music. The song was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 and quickly became one of the most popular songs of the Union during the American Civil War.
In 1870, Julia Howe was the first to proclaim Mother's Day, with her Day Proclamation. Her original proclamation was meant as a call for mothers to come together and work for peace.
After the Civil War came to an end, Howe focused her energies on activities related to pacifism and women's suffrage, two of the many causes which she was passionate about. She assisted Lucy Stone and Henry Brown Blackwell with editing Woman's Journal from 1872 to 1879, in order to help promote the causes she was passionate about. However, working for peace was not the cause closest to Julia Ward Howe's heart. In the aftermath of the Civil War, she began to see parallels between struggles for legal rights for blacks and the need for legal equality for women. She became very active in the women's suffrage movement.
By 1868, Julia Ward Howe was instrumental in helping to found the New England Suffrage Association. In 1869, with her colleague Lucy Stone, she led the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) as suffragists split into two camps; black versus woman suffrage and state versus federal focus in legislating change. She also began to lecture and write frequently on the subject of women's suffrage.
She pulled together a series of essays by writers of the time which disputed long held theories regarding women being inferior to men and, therefore, requiring separate education. This defense of women's rights and education appeared in 1974 as Sex and Education.
Howe died on October 17, 1910, at the age of 91, at her home, Oak Glen, in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Records indicate that she died of pneumonia. She is interred at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Her trailblazing work has garnered Julia Ward Howe many honors. On January 28, 1908, Howe became the first woman to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was later inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. Julia Ward Howe was featured on a 14 cent US stamp issued in 1987.The Julia Ward Howe School of Excellence in Chicago's Austin community is named in her honor. Oak Glen, her beloved home in Rhode Island, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.