Her-storical Perspective

Learning about how Mother's Day came to be was truly an eye-opening sojourn down her-story lane. But having to pare it all down to our short 'n sweet Feminist Heritage Minute movie meant some really interesting bits had to be left out. To make matter worse, source materials were horribly inconsistent and two of the founding mothers have practically the same names! So keeping all that in mind, here's the unabridged version of Mother's Day with all our favorite factoids back in.

A DAY ROOTED IN SOCIAL ACTIVISM

The inspiration for a national Mother's Day came from a West Virginian woman and mother of eleven who suffered through the loss of eight of her children. In 1858 at only 26, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis organized women in her area into Mothers Day Work Clubs to improve the health and sanitation conditions in her county. During the American Civil War, she was adamant her clubs stay neutral and they courageously nursed soldiers from both sides. When the war ended, she arranged the first Mothers Friendship Day in 1868 to reconcile friends and families torn apart by the bitter conflict, and they were celebrated on several occasions after.

MOTHERS' DAY FOR PEACE (1870)

Influenced by Ann Jarvis and reeling from the carnage left over from the American Civil War, the prominent Boston writer, abolitionist, and suffragist Julia Ward Howe issued a Mothers' Day Proclamation in 1870, calling on women around the world to unite to end war. She saw mothers as being uniquely invested in stopping the killing of each others sons, and worked to have a Mothers' Day for Peace recognized on June 2. Though it never really caught on, in recent years Mother's Day has been reclaimed by the peace movement in actions to end the Iraq War.

MEMORIAL MOTHERS DAY (1908)

When Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis passed away, her daughter Anna vowed to realize her mother’s dream of a day commemorating mothers and the "matchless service rendered to humanity." On the second Sunday of May 1908, the third anniversary of her mother's death, 15,000 people showed up at a Philadelphia church to celebrate a general memorial day for all mothers. Anna also began the custom a wearing a carnation on Mother's Day, a pure and inexpensive symbol of love and respect.

MOTHER'S DAY GOES NATIONAL... AND GETS DE-ACTIVISTED (1914)

By 1909, Canada, Mexico, and 45 U.S. States were celebrating Mothers Day. In 1914, it was declared a U.S. national holiday. But thanks to tinkering by officials, the apostrophe was moved and it became “Mother’s Day,” a day to celebrate the individual mother and her work in the home, thus changing the collective nature and meaning of every Mothers Day that had come before.

ANNA "REBEL" JARVIS

In many ways, the story of Mother's Day is the story of Anna Jarvis. She is the embodiment of the dutiful daughter and consummate activist, dedicating her life to pay tribute to her own mother. But her fierce nature really comes through when she began her unsuccessful lifelong fight against its commercialization. When carnation prices rose she attacked florists as pirates and racketeers whose greed was undermining the noble spirit of the day. In the 1930s, she was arrested protesting a meeting of the American War Mothers who were selling carnations to raise money. She even incorporated Mother's Day and threatened to sue anyone who infringed on the patent. Anna Jarvis would spend the rest of her life and her fortune bitterly trying to take back the day. And though she was never a mother herself, she is considered to be the mother of Mother's Day.