Columbia (personification)

America was depicted as a woman who, like Africa, was only partly dressed, typically in bright feathers, which invariably formed her headdress.

[2][3] Though versions of this depiction, tending as time went on to soften the rather savage image into an "Indian princess" type, and in churches emphasizing conversion to Christianity, served European artists well enough, by the 18th century they were becoming rejected by settlers in North America, who wanted figures representing themselves rather than the Native Americans they were often in conflict with.

[5] The name "Columbia" for America first appeared in 1738[6][7] in the weekly publication of the debates of Parliament in Edward Cave's The Gentleman's Magazine.

Most of these were transparent anagrams or similar distortions of the real names and some few were taken directly from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels while a few others were classical or neoclassical in style.

For instance, the name appears in a collection of complimentary poems written by Harvard graduates in 1761 on the occasion of the marriage and coronation of King George III.

In part, the more frequent usage of the name "Columbia" reflected a rising American neoclassicism, exemplified in the tendency to use Roman terms and symbols.

During the Civil War, the Union faced a coin shortage and issued Fractional currency depicting busts of George Washington and others, as well as allegorical figures such as Columbia and Liberty.

Early in World War I (1914–1918), the image of Columbia standing over a kneeling "doughboy" was issued in lieu of the Purple Heart medal.

The personification of Columbia fell out of use and was largely replaced by the Statue of Liberty as a feminine symbol of the United States.

[17] In 2023, on the commemorative medal issued by the U.S.Mint, Columbia does not wear a Phrygian cap and does not carry a weapon or shield as in the World War I poster.

As a quasi-mythical figure, Columbia first appears in the poetry of the African-American Phillis Wheatley in October 1775, during the Revolutionary War:[21][22] One century scarce perform'd its destined round, When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found; And so may you, whoever dares disgrace The land of freedom's heaven-defended race!

[25] The image of the personified Columbia was never fixed, but she was most often presented as a woman between youth and middle age, wearing classically draped garments decorated with stars and stripes.

A popular version gave her a red-and-white-striped dress and a blue blouse, shawl, or sash, spangled with white stars.