Small Home Gazette, Spring 2023

History Brief: She Disowned Her Own Holiday

In 1858, Ann Reeves Jarvis began helping mothers combat high infant/child mortality rates. She ran Mothers’ Day Work Clubs out of her church in West Virginia. Jarvis dreamt of a special day honoring mothers.

Anna Jarvis, 1912.

When Jarvis died in 1905, her daughter Anna promised to fulfil her mother’s dream. But Anna did not want to celebrate the work done by mothers—she wanted people to celebrate just their own mother with a visit or a personal note. “Mothers’ Day” became “Mother’s Day.”  

Working through her mother’s church to launch the first event, Anna sent 500 white carnations to be handed to mothers. Her zealous letter-writing began to gain the attention of wealthy backers and politicians, including President Woodrow Wilson, who designated it a national holiday in 1914.

1913 Mother’s Day postcard with carnations.

Part of the holiday’s success was its commercial appeal—to the floral, greeting card, and candy industries. As for Anna, her obsession to establish the holiday changed to an obsession to fight commercialization. She fought any organization that used her day for anything but her original, sentimental meaning. Her protests escalated to arrests for public disturbances.

Anna died, ill and destitute, fighting to the end for signatures to back an appeal for Mother’s Day to be rescinded, but the holiday she created lives on.