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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio, Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class,

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Speaker 1: a show that uncovers a little bit more about history

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Speaker 1: every day. I'm Gabe Lousier, and in this episode, we're

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Speaker 1: taking a closer look at the origins of Mother's Day.

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Speaker 1: The second Sunday of May, when wayward sons and daughters

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Speaker 1: finally make that call to their mothers, or at least

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Speaker 1: send a text for the day. Was May nine, nineteen fourteen.

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Speaker 1: By order of presidential proclamation, Mother's Day was officially established

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Speaker 1: as a national holiday in the United States. Woodrow Wilson

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Speaker 1: issued the announcement, directing government officials to display the American

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Speaker 1: flag on government buildings and for private citizens to do

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Speaker 1: the same in their homes. This observance was to be

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Speaker 1: made on the second Sunday of May, as quote, a

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Speaker 1: public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers

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Speaker 1: of our country. By the time President Wilson made Mother's

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Speaker 1: Day official, many individual states had already celebrated such a

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Speaker 1: holiday for several years. As you can probably tell from

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Speaker 1: the language of the proclamation, the holiday was intended to

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Speaker 1: be more solemn and reverent than it's often treated today.

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Speaker 1: That's because, contrary to popular belief, Mother's Day wasn't the

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Speaker 1: invention of greeting card companies, florists, or restaurants as a

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Speaker 1: way to boost their business. Instead, it took shape as

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Speaker 1: part of an ongoing women's movement. The original push for

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Speaker 1: a nationally recognized Mother's Day is generally attributed to three

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Speaker 1: American women, and Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward how and Jarvis's daughter,

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Speaker 1: Anna M. Jarvis. The idea began with Ann Reeves Jarvis,

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Speaker 1: an Appalachian homemaker, Sunday school teacher, and lifelong social activist.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen fifty eight, Mother Jarvis, as she came to

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Speaker 1: be known, began organizing Mother's Day work clubs in towns

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Speaker 1: throughout western Virginia. These community events were aimed at improving

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Speaker 1: health and sanitary conditions for young mothers and their children,

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Speaker 1: and often included lessons on childcare. Three years later, when

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Speaker 1: the Civil War broke out, Jarvis expanded the mission of

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Speaker 1: the work clubs to address the new challenges that the

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Speaker 1: conflict placed on families. Determined to keep the community together

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Speaker 1: despite the growing political divide, Jarvis encouraged her clubs to

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Speaker 1: offer aid to supporters of both the Confederacy and the

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Speaker 1: Union alike. As a result, the women's clubs provided food, clothing,

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Speaker 1: and medical treatment to soldiers from both sides of the battlefield.

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Speaker 1: In this way, they strive to be mothers to all.

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Speaker 1: Following the war, Jarvis and her clubs were called upon

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Speaker 1: to help heal the community divide in West Virginia. To

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Speaker 1: this end, Jarvis organized a Mother's Friendship Day at the

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Speaker 1: Taylor County Courthouse held in eighteen sixty eight. The event

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Speaker 1: brought together former Union and Confederate soldiers and their families

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Speaker 1: for a day of food, fellowship, and music. As you

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Speaker 1: may have noticed, Mother's Friendship Day and Mother's Day work

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Speaker 1: Clubs were not celebrations of mothers. They were community outreach

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Speaker 1: programs led by mothers. However, Anne Reeves Jarvis also had

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Speaker 1: the idea of a day on which mothers got their due.

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Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy six, she concluded one of her Sunday

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Speaker 1: school lessons by sharing this fervent wish with her students,

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Speaker 1: including one of her own daughters, and I hope and pray.

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Speaker 1: Jarvis said that someone sometime will found a memorial Mother's

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Speaker 1: Day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to

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Speaker 1: humanity in every field of life. She is entitled to it.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about how Anne carried on her mother's wish

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Speaker 1: in a moment, but first I want to acknowledge the

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Speaker 1: contribution of Julia Ward How, a contemporary of Anne Reeves Jarvis,

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Speaker 1: how was another deeply patriotic and community minded woman. She

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Speaker 1: wrote the lyrics to the Battle Hymn of the Republic

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Speaker 1: and led relief efforts for the widows and orphans of

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Speaker 1: Civil War soldiers, again on both sides. In eighteen seventy,

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Speaker 1: with the horrors of the Civil War still a recent

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Speaker 1: memory and the Franco Prussian War just beginning in Europe,

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Speaker 1: How urged mothers around the world to join together in

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Speaker 1: a call for peace. To get the ball rolling, she

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Speaker 1: began organizing an annual event in Boston called Mother's Peace Day.

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Speaker 1: This early version of Mother's Day was held in Boston

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Speaker 1: in other towns for about thirty years. However, it was

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Speaker 1: primarily celebrated by peace activists and war protesters and was

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Speaker 1: never widely adopted by the general public. The next step

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Speaker 1: in the crusade to honor Mother's didn't come until nineteen

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Speaker 1: o seven, when Anna M. Jarvis took up the cause

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Speaker 1: after her own mother's death two years earlier. Anna remembered

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Speaker 1: her mother's wish for a memorial Mother's Day and held

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Speaker 1: a private service in her honor on May nine, nineteen

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Speaker 1: o seven, the two year anniversary of her death. The

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Speaker 1: following year, Anna organized the first public observance of Mother's

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Speaker 1: Day at the Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia,

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Speaker 1: the very church where her mother had taught Sunday school.

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Speaker 1: The service was held on the morning of May tenth,

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Speaker 1: nineteen o eight, the second Sunday of the month, and

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Speaker 1: though Anna did not attend personally, she did provide five

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Speaker 1: hundred white carnations to be worn by all the sons

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Speaker 1: and daughters in attendance. The white carnation was meant to

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Speaker 1: represent the purity of a mother's love, but it also

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Speaker 1: carried a more personal meaning for Anna, it was her

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Speaker 1: mother's favorite flower. In the years to come, the carnation

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Speaker 1: would become a Mother's Day staple, with red carnation signifying

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Speaker 1: honor for a mother who was still living and white

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Speaker 1: representing the memory of a mother who had passed away.

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Speaker 1: Little by little, Anna Jarvis furthered her campaign to create

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Speaker 1: a national day honoring mother's Two years after achieving local

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Speaker 1: recognition in Grafton, Jarvis succeeded in getting her home state,

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Speaker 1: West Virginia to officially adopt the holiday. Other states quickly

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Speaker 1: followed suit, eventually prompting a joint resolution in Congress to

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Speaker 1: make Mother's Day a national observance. The resolution sailed through

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Speaker 1: with houses with ease, and on May nine, fourteen, President

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Speaker 1: Woodrow Wilson signed the bill into law. You might think

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Speaker 1: the story ends there with victory for Anna Jarvis, who

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Speaker 1: was able to fulfill her own mother's wish, but unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: the idea of a legal holiday devoted to mothers proved

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Speaker 1: less than satisfying to Jarvis. In practice, things went well initially,

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Speaker 1: and for the first several years, Mother's Day was the simple,

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Speaker 1: respectful affair that Anna had always hoped for. Church services

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Speaker 1: were held in honor of mother's and signs of affection

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Speaker 1: were publicly displayed for mothers both living and dead. However,

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Speaker 1: by the early nineteen twenties, Mother's Day had become a

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Speaker 1: much more commercial affair. Florists, candy makers, and greeting card

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Speaker 1: companies had seized on the holiday as a promising new

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Speaker 1: revenue stream. This eventually led Anna Jarvis to disavow the

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Speaker 1: holiday she had fought so long to secure. She'd began

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Speaker 1: urging the public to boycott the industries that exploited the day,

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Speaker 1: calling them quote Charlatan's bandits, pirates, racketeers, kidnappers, and termites

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Speaker 1: that would undermine with their greed one of the finest, noblest,

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Speaker 1: and truest movements and celebrations. Jarvis believed these companies were

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Speaker 1: hollowing out the heartfelt holiday, removing the effort that sincere

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Speaker 1: affection required a printed card, means nothing, she wrote, except

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Speaker 1: that you are too lazy to write to the woman

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Speaker 1: who has done more for you than anyone in the world.

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Speaker 1: And candy you take a box to mother and then

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Speaker 1: eat most of it yourself, A pretty sentiment. Jarvis continued

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Speaker 1: her war on Mother's Day well into her old age

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Speaker 1: and her late seventies. She even started a petition to

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Speaker 1: rescind the holiday and went door to door to collect signatures.

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Speaker 1: Her campaign was finally put to an end in the

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Speaker 1: mid nineteen forties when she was committed to the Marshall

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Speaker 1: Square Sanitarium in Westchester, Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to her. The bills

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Speaker 1: for her care there were largely paid for by her enemies,

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Speaker 1: a group of florists and greeting card manufacturers. It was

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Speaker 1: their way of saying thanks to the mother of Mother's Day.

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Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Lousier and hopefully you now know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. You can

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Speaker 1: learn even more about history by following us on Twitter, Facebook,

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Speaker 1: and Instagram at t d i HC Show, And if

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Speaker 1: you have any comments or suggestions, you can always send

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Speaker 1: them my way at this Day at I heeart media

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Speaker 1: dot com. Oh and happy Mother's Day to the best

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Speaker 1: moms in the world, mine and yours. Lastly, thanks to

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Speaker 1: Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thank you for listening.

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Speaker 1: I'll see you back here again tomorrow for another day

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Speaker 1: in history class intended a wedding. The posit