Sometime in my youth my mom gave me a very big book: “From Sea to Shining Sea: A Treasurer of American Folklore and Folk Songs.” Compiled by Amy L. Cohen and published in 1993, the colorful tome featured illustrations from some of the absolute best and prize-winning illustrators for children such as Chris Van Allsburh, Anita Lobel, and Barbara Cooney, to name a few. The book is a romp through American history, told through song, scary stories, prayers, and folktales and is the result of Cohen’s long quest to discover the story of this nation.
Growing up, I was fascinated with American history, largely in part of living so close to the Straits of Mackinac, the epicenter of liquid history between tribes and European explorers that led to the development of the nation from the northern shores of Lakes Michigan and Huron.
I doubt any kid growing up near Fort Mackinac on Mackinac Island didn’t imagine themselves firing a cannon at a British ship. Like many girls raised in the 1990s, I had an American Girl Doll, each of whom had a story connected to pivotal moments in history. I think my parents gifted me Molly because we both had brown hair and wore glasses, but I quickly became enchanted by her life during World War II. There were a series of books for each doll and those became more interesting to me than the doll itself. I read each doll’s series and then we took a long road trip to Colonial Williamsburg and my obsession with history went into overdrive.
I alternated between wearing a bonnet like Felicity from colonial America and belting “Johnny B. Goode” which explains why I was so thrilled to get a book like “From Sea to Shining Sea.” All of American history in 400 pages and in hardcover. To receive such a mature and diverse book as Cohen’s collection was exhilarating.
I still have it.
As our nation prepares to celebrate our Semiquincentennial, I recently plucked it off my shelf, curious to see how this collection of history and culture has fared over the decades. The collection begins with early creation stories from Native Americans: Raven, Coyote, and Turtle forming the earth, animals, and people. It then rolls through history, as European explorers and settlers come ashore and then dare to create a nation unlike any other, one that wasn’t ruled by the divine right of kings. One where democracy could be a grand and evolving experiment, even if it didn’t include all men or women in its original Declaration of Rights. The stories of immigrants and rail workers, farmers and pioneers are captured in myth and song. Although written with children in mind, it doesn’t gloss over the horrors of slavery or the ways in which this country has failed its people from immigrants to tribes. In the introduction, Cohen sets out to define American folklore. “Like our country American folklore is big and bold, full of life and full of humor. It also reflects the experiences of hundreds groups who came from distant shores to make this land their home. Like our country, American folklore molds and blends different cultures without destroying their essences,” she writes.
This type of book might have a certain set of challenges if it were to be published today. There’s a dominant, narrow, and hateful current in our country that wants to ignore our past, to erase the ways in which the grand “American Experiment” enslaved others and broke treaties and offer a sanitized and false reality. There’s pressure to eliminate the diversity, and thereby the joyfulness, of stories that started in the islands of the Caribbean or the laments of the Chinese immigrants. When one of these stories is blocked or banned, it loosens the thread on all of our stories. It unravels the borders between sea to shining sea. Our essence is destroyed when we ignore these songs and stories and give way to an anti-democratic form of government that seeks no union but division.
This influential book is just a small snapshot of American history expressed through story and song, and I’m so thankful I’ve kept it all these years. I also know that the work of belonging to a nation such as this means to keep listening to the stories that shape the people who live here and work to ensure that they are not forgotten. “From Sea to Shining Sea” is a beautiful reminder that we come from many different backgrounds and experiences which form an interdependence, a shared meaning, which only strengthens our independence.