Jarvis, Anna (1864-1948), an American schoolteacher, is considered the founder of Mother’s Day as a national observance in the United States. Largely as a result of her efforts, people throughout the country set aside the second Sunday in May to honor motherhood.
Anna Marie Jarvis was born on May 1, 1864, in the village of Webster, near Morgantown, West Virginia. She studied at the Augusta Female Seminary in Staunton, Virginia (now Mary Baldwin University), graduating in 1883. She worked as a schoolteacher in Grafton, West Virginia, near Webster. Later, she lived in Philadelphia.
In 1872, the American author Julia Ward Howe made the first known suggestion for a Mother’s Day in the United States. Over many years, several cities held Mother’s Day celebrations on various dates. Following the death of her own mother in 1905, Jarvis began a campaign to promote a nationwide Mother’s Day. Jarvis chose the second Sunday in May. This day was the closest Sunday to the anniversary of her mother’s death. Jarvis wrote letters to newspapers. She also held promotional events, sometime sponsored by florists, to popularize the idea. Jarvis organized her first Mother’s Day celebration in 1908 at a church in Grafton and a large auditorium at the John Wanamaker & Company department store in Philadelphia. She also began the custom of wearing a white carnation, her mother’s favorite flower, on Mother’s Day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially declared the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.
Jarvis thought of Mother’s Day as a solemn occasion to honor motherhood. However, she never married or had children of her own. Over time, she grew to dislike the growing commercialization (moneymaking) surrounding Mother’s Day. Jarvis spent the last years of her life campaigning against the popular Mother’s Day customs of sending flowers, cards, candy, and other gifts. She died on Nov. 24, 1948.
