Woody Guthrie wrote “This Land Is Your Land” in 1940. The song’s success wasn’t certain in its early history; it was once called “communist” and “anti-American,” but it eventually became a sort of unofficial national anthem.

Woody Guthrie, at left with guitar, and Pete Seeger, with banjo. Guthrie and Seeger met at a midnight benefit concert in New York when Guthrie was 29 and Seeger was 22.

Pete Seeger leads the crowd in singing “This Land Is Your Land” at the celebration for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Woody Guthrie’s Birthplace in Okfuskee County, Oklahoma in October 1979. Guthrie was born into a middle-class family that fell on hard times during the Great Depression.

The original, handwritten lyrics to “This Land Is Your Land,” dated February 23, 1940.

Woody Guthrie’s daughter, Nora, says Woody originally wrote the line “God blessed America for me” as a parody of the Irving Berlin song, “God Bless America.” That lyric became the now-familiar “this land is made for you and me.”

Woody Guthrie with his wife, Mary Guthrie, and children at the piano, in 1940. In his 1943 auobiography, Bound for Glory, they're left unmentioned.

Woody Guthrie, in 1943, with “This Machine Kills Fascists” written on his guitar.

Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings reinterpreted “This Land Is Your Land” in a 2005 recording. Jones says she never paid much attention to the song when she first heard it, but found new meaning when she considered the lyrics.