Mother’s Day

On the second Sunday of May every year, mothers in the United States are celebrated. It’s a day of love and appreciation, but its history is complex. First designated a national holiday by President Woodrow Wilson in 1914, the modern American Mother’s Day became a reality thanks to Philadelphian Anna Jarvis (1864–1948) whose persistent efforts would give motherhood the recognition she believed it deserved. Though Jarvis never had any children, her inspiration came from her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis (1832–1905).

There were precursors to Mother’s Day before the 1914 proclamation. Julia Ward Howe (1819–1910) had sponsored the antiwar Mother’s Day for Peace, first held on June 2, 1872, as an appeal to women to unite for world peace. The following year she sponsored celebrations in 18 cities; however, they faded out when Howe stopped paying for them. Another celebration of motherhood took place in Henderson, Kentucky, in 1887, when schoolteacher Mary Towles Sasseen first observed Mother’s Day in her classroom. In 1904 Frank E. Herring, speaking before the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Indianapolis, Indiana, proposed the idea for a national observance of Mother’s Day and later became known as the “Father of Mother’s Day.”

Ann Reeves Jarvis, mother of Anna Jarvis and the inspiration for Mother’s Day.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

In any event, Ann Reeves Jarvis began Mothers’ Day Work Clubs in 1858 to combat high infant and child mortality rates. After the Civil War, she initiated Mothers Friendship Day to promote peace between Union and Confederate soldiers. Her idea for a special day was to acknowledge the work mothers do to improve the lives of others. When Ann Jarvis died in 1904, her daughter Anna took up her mother’s mantle and strengthened the movement for Mother’s Day. Her intention, however, was that each family would honor their mother in a private acknowledgment of all she does for the family: “For the Best Mother who Ever Lived—Your Mother.” Hence, the singular possessive “Mother’s” in the name of the holiday.

On May 10, 1908, the anniversary of her mother’s death, which happened to be the second Sunday of the month, Jarvis succeeded in holding Mother’s Day celebrations in her hometown of Grafton, West Virginia, and her new city of residence, Philadelphia. As a gift, she encouraged giving a white carnation, her mother’s favorite flower. The reason: “Its whiteness is to symbolize the truth, purity and broad-charity of mother love; its fragrance, her memory, and her prayers. The carnation does not drop its petals, but hugs them to its heart as it dies, and so, too, mothers hug their children to their hearts, their mother love never dying.”

Anna Jarvis, circa 1900, founder of Mother’s Day in the U.S.
Collection of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania

To promote the holiday in Philadelphia, Jarvis worked with department store merchant John Wanamaker (1838–1922), who shared her interest and devotion to mothers. Wanamaker saw this as a business opportunity for his store and hosted Philadelphia’s first Mother’s Day celebration. When the attendance outgrew his store’s 5,000-seat auditorium, he had it moved to the plaza in front of City Hall. The holiday grew in popularity, and with the support of Jarvis’ letter-writing campaign, became official in 1914.

The blossoming floral, confectionary and greeting card industries quickly commercialized the holiday. What Jarvis had hoped to be a quiet and pious recognition of the family’s mother had become to her eyes a holiday of profit. She became increasingly outspoken against the “laziness” encouraged by the commercialization of Mother’s Day and, frustrated at the twisting of her desired outcomes, protested many of the public celebrations, even filing a lawsuit, which was dismissed, against the governor of New York when she learned alcohol was served at his Mother’s Day event. Jarvis continued to fight against the commercialization of Mother’s Day until she died at 84.

The Pennsylvania Historical Marker for Mother’s Day was dedicated on June 1, 1998, and is located on the traffic island at Market and Juniper streets on the east side of City Hall in Philadelphia, near the location of Wanamaker’s first celebration.

Alli Davis is the coordinator of the Pennsylvania Historical Marker Program.