This carte de visite of James Ryder Randall , at age 44, belongs to the Barret-Sandburg Collection at Newberry Library in Chicago. It's autographed on the back.
Vy. Sincerely Yrs.
Jas. R. Randall
J.R. Randall is largely forgotten, except as the author of Maryland's former state song, Maryland, My Maryland. The Biographical Dictionary of America gives a short bio and this woodcut and autograph.
RANDALL, James Ryder, poet and journalist, was born in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 1, 1839; son of John Killen and Ruth Maria (Hooper) Randall; grandson of John and Caroline Randall and of Robert and Margaret Hooper; great-grandson of the celebrated Robert Hooper, known as "King" Hooper of Marblehead, Mass., and a descendant maternally of the people of "Evangeline," the French of Acadie, who were driven from Nova Scotia by the British. He was educated by private tutors, and at Georgetown college, D.C., 1849-56 ; was employed as a clerk in a Baltimore book store; taught school in Florida, and removed to Louisiana, where he became clerk to a shipping merchant. He was professor of English and the classics in Poydras college, Pointe Coupee parish. La., 1859-61. and contributed poems to the New Orleans Sunday Delta. His most famous poem, "My Maryland" which he wrote after reading the news of the passage of the Massachusetts volunteers through the streets of Baltimore, became popular throughout the South and gained him an international reputation. It was set to music by Mrs. Hettie (Cary) Martin of Baltimore to the German air “Tannebaum." He was married in December, 1864, to Katherine, daughter of Marcus and Harriet Hammond, and removed to Augusta, Ga., where he became editor of the Constitutionalist and subsequently of the Chronicle, of both of which papers he was the Washington correspondent during the successive sessions of congress. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by the University of Notre Dame, Ind., in 1899. Among his other poems are: The Cameo Bracelet; The Lone Sentry; Arlington; There's Life in the Old Land Yet; The Battle Cry of the South; Stonewall Jackson; Eidolon; At Arlington; John Pelham and Why the Robin's Breast is Red. -- Biographical Dictionary of America, Vol. 9, (unnumbered) page 34.
This 1895 Newspaper cut closely follows The CdV. (The Lewiston Idaho Teller, December 19, 1895, Page 3.)
The oil portrait, below, follows the pattern. It was painted by Kathrine Walton and was presented by the Daughters of the Confederacy to the State of Maryland in January of 1909 to be hung in the chamber of the House of Delegates in the Statehouse in Annapolis, above the speaker's rostrum. Cardinal Gibbons was at the dedication as was Governor Austen Crothers. (See The Baltimore Sun, Cardinal at Unveiling, January 24, 1909) This AP photo by John Gillis of Walton's Portrait of Randall accompanied a 2016 Washington Post editorial advocating the retirement of Maryland's state song.
“James Ryder Randall, author of “Maryland, My Maryland” born in Baltimore,January 1, 1839; died in Augusta, Ga., January. 14, 1908. Painted by Miss Katharine Kent Walton, of Annapolis.”
Military Images, Vol. 39, No. 3 (217) (SUMMER 2021) published this CdV of James R. Randall at age 22, the age at which he wrote "My Maryland."
James R. Randall
Aetat 22.
A similar photo of 22-year-old Randall appeared as the frontispiece of his 1908 collection of poems Maryland, My Maryland and Other Poems, and in The Photographic History of The Civil War, 1911.
Randall was 68 when the photo below was taken. It appeared as the frontispiece of The poems of James Ryder Randall edited by Matthew Page Andrews in 1908.
James Ryder Randall
1907
James Ryder Randall died of lung congestion due to "the grip" on January 15, 1908. (See Madame La Grippe by James Ryder Randall). This next picture accompanied his obituary in the Baltimore Sun, Jan. 15, 1908. (See also: his New York Times obituary.)
His Song Stirs Maryland Hearts
The Late Col. James R. Randall
[From a recent photograph]
How Randall acquired the title "Colonel" is mysterious to me; the text of the Sun obituary calls him "Mr. Randall" throughout. Back in 1861, soon after writing "My Maryland," he joined the Confederate army but was quickly discharged because of hemorrhaging of the lungs. He was made an Honorary Confederate Veteran by the Isaac R. Trimble Camp, No. 1025, United Confederate Veterans in 1905.
A version of that photo appeared in Randall's Memoirs of a Busy Life published by the Baltimore Sun in six weekly installments between July 7 and Aug. 11, 1907.
H. L. Mencken's 1929 assessment was that:
...He was one of the worst poets ever heard of—but he wrote Maryland, My Maryland. Is it as bad as “The Star Spangled Banner”? Probably not. But good or bad, it met a great situation superbly, and promises to live for many years. . . . there is no movement to erect a monument to Randall, or even, indeed, to mark his grave. Where he lies I don’t know. -- The Evening Sun, Feb. 25, 1929, Page 21.
James Ryder Randall's grave is in the Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta Georgia. This 2013 photo by Sara Baker Partridge appears at Find-a-Grave.
James Ryder Randall
Born at
Baltimore, Maryland
January 1, 1839
Died in
Augusta, Georgia
January 15, 1908.
Although Randall has not been widely memorialized in Maryland, there is a James Randall Ryder Elementary School in Clinton. Augusta Georgia hosts several monuments to James Randall Ryder.
A monument to James Ryder Randall stands in the middle of Greene Street in Augusta. The 2008 HMdb photo below was taken by Mike Stroud.
James Ryder
Randall
1839 -- 1908
“Better The Fire Upon Thee Roll.
Better The Blade The Shot the Bowl,
Than Crucifixion Of The Soul.
Maryland, My Maryland!”
The monument was “Erected by the Randall Memorial Committee of Chapter 'A' United Daughters of the Confederacy Augusta Georgia May 28, 1936.”
The same verse from “Maryland, My Maryland“ appears on the Poets' Monument in Augusta also on Green Street. This HABS photo shows the sides of the monument honoring Paul Hayne and Father Ryan, James Randall Ryder and Sidney Lanier are on the other two sides.
But the most impressive monument to Randall is the huge southern live oak which commemorates Randall and "My Maryland." Shown here in an anonymous HMdb photo.
A nearby plaque tells the story:
Randall Oak
Near this tree, within the walls
of Poydras College were written
the immortal lines of
"Maryland, My Maryland"
by James Ryder Randall
Born in Baltimore, Maryland
January 1st, 1839
Died in Augusta, Georgia January 14th 1908
Poem written at midnight
April 26th, 1861
This tablet is erected to his memory
by the Book Club of Pointe Coupee Parish
April 26th, 1938
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