Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) was the founder of Mother’s Day... but the way we celebrate today is very different from what she had in mind.
Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) was the founder of Mother’s Day... but the way we celebrate today is very different from what she had in mind.
While motherhood can take many forms, to mother is to usher forth new generations through care, work and imagination. For the entire month of December, we’re celebrating mothers — including those who raised children who went on to lead the civil rights movement and school desegregation efforts, such as Alberta King and Louise Little, as well as mothers of movements like Lorena Borjas who started the Latinx trans movement. All of the women featured this month were dedicated to the survival of children in their work and to imagining better futures for the next generation.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
Original theme music composed by Miles Moran.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Anna Malaika Tubbs, the author of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK Jr., Malcom X and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation. My work focuses on motherhood, through the lens of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity, and I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about mothers: women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination.
Today, we’re talking about the woman who founded Mother’s Day… and who, to be honest, probably would’ve hated how you’re celebrating it now. Her story is a reminder that to mother is to bring forth.
Let’s meet Anna Jarvis.
Anna’s own legacy revolved around commemorating the memory of her mother. The woman whose work she fought to immortalize: Anne Reeves Jarvis.
Anne Reeves dedicated her life, through happiness and tragedy, to motherhood. She gave birth to twelve children, though she only saw four survive to adulthood. While she was pregnant with her sixth child, Anne Reeves saw the dismal conditions many mothers and children were living in in her home of Taylor County, West Virginia. As a result, Anne created a prototype of mother's day: Mothers’ Day Work Clubs. From 1858 onward, she organized workshops for mothers in the area to learn about maintaining a healthy home. Topics included hygiene, sanitation, medicine, and even how to quarantine households to prevent epidemics.
Anna grew up learning about the trials of motherhood from her own mom. One night, she overheard her mother praying. “I hope and pray,” she said, “that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day commemorating her for the matchless service she renders to humanity in every field of life.”
When Anne Reeves died on May 9, 1905, Anna made it her mission to fulfill her mother’s wishes. She was going to create a memorial to mothers – even though Anna herself was over 40 years old, single, and childless. She wouldn’t be coming at this project from the perspective of a mother, but that of a daughter.
So, on May 10, 1908, Anna organized the first official Mother’s Day Services, under the motto, “For the Best Mother who Ever Lived – Your Mother.” And that was “Mother’s” with a singular apostrophe. The celebration took place in St. Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where her mother had donated much of her time. Anna chose the second Sunday in May, since it would always land close to the anniversary of her mother’s death. She sent nearly 500 carnations, her mother’s favorite flower, to the tiny church.
Anna wanted the day to motivate people to honor their own mothers, hence the singular ‘mother’ in the title. But no less than two years after its first celebration, Mother’s Day became a West Virginia state holiday. By 1914, it was a national holiday.
But, as with so many commercial successes, each successive year meant the holiday peeled itself farther and farther from Anna’s initial vision. Soon, the Philadelphia Inquirer was reporting that you could not “beg, borrow, or steal a carnation” in May. Other challenges also arose: in 1930, a New York group of philanthropists petitioned for a “parents’ day,” to bring fathers into the mother’s day fold.
Anna wouldn’t stand for it. When florists hiked the price of carnations, she endorsed an open boycott against buying flowers. She openly denounced the “parents’ day” bill as a “humiliating” attack on mothers and her legal copyright. Any event that used Mother’s Day as a commercial enterprise went down in Anna’s bad books – including charities that used the holiday for fundraising.
She was relentless. By 1944, Anna had some 33 pending lawsuits filed against perceived copyright infringement. Even into her old age, she worked to protect the legacy of her holiday… even if that meant taking it back herself. When she was about 80 years old, she and her sister Lillian went door-to-door asking for signatures to back an appeal for Mother’s Day to be rescinded entirely.
The appeal never gained traction. But Anna’s story is forever entangled with Mother’s Day, and the industry she unwittingly ushered forth. Late in life, Anna was blind, deaf, and nearly penniless. She lived in a sanatorium in Philadelphia that cared for her. According to some stories, it was the floral and card industries that secretly paid for her care there.
Anna died of heart failure in November, 1948.
All month, we’re talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!