For years Julia Ward Howe had yearned to take a
more active part in public affairs. But her husband,
the noted Boston reformer Samuel Gridley Howe, had
always insisted that she confine herself to running
their home. In 1861, however, she unwittingly transformed
herself into a minor celebrity with the writing
of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
Composed during a visit to Washington, this fiercely
martial poem, dedicated to the Union cause, was
soon set to the music of “John Brown’s
Body.” By 1865 it had become the North’s
unofficial wartime anthem.
After the Civil War, Howe finally broke the constraints
imposed by her husband to become one of the best-loved
figures in the growing feminist movement. Whenever
she lectured, her audiences generally marked the
occasion by singing the “Battle Hymn.”
This portrait was begun in Howe’s last years
by her son-in-law, who attempted to portray her
as she might have looked years earlier, writing
the “Battle Hymn.” Many who met Howe
remarked on her striking resemblance to Britain’s
Queen Victoria. To some extent, the likeness confirms
this.
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Begun by John Elliot (1858–1925), finished by
William H. Cotton (1880–1958)
Oil on canvas, circa 1910 and circa 1925
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Transfer from the National Museum of American
Art; gift of Mrs. John Elliot, 1933
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