Sunday, May 14th is Mother's Day—a day of flowers, cards and brunches. How did this special day to celebrate all mothers actually begin? This question is a perfect research topic to explore using the specially curated electronic resources available at NYPL.  But what seemed like a very simple question—"How did Mother's Day begin?"—led us down a strange and contentious path. Here's what was found.

The movement for a national holiday to celebrate mothers began with Anna Jarvis, a forty-four year-old woman, who in her youth was an active suffragette. The idea of Mother's Day came to her after the death of her own mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis. Surprisingly, Ann and Anna had a strained and unhealthy relationship, according to Katherine Lane Antolini's book Memorializing Mother's Day: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother's Day, available through Project Muse. Ann was the mother of thirteen children, losing nine to early deaths, and Anna was her tenth born. Ann was said to be a "controlling individual who interfered with her surviving adult children's lives, particularly relying heavily upon Anna, the eldest unmarried daughter...." Regardless of their relationship, and the fact that Anna Jarvis had no children of her own, she worked tirelessly as the head of the Mother's Day movement to have it recognized as a national holiday. In a feature by The Detroit Free Press, available through ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Jarvis stated:

Of all the special days in many lands, not one has been inaugurated to honor womanhood; though individuals have attributed their happiness and their success in life to their mother's influence, no country has publicly dedicated a day to its mothers. And yet no loyalty or sacrifices surpass those of the mothers and wives who have given for their country's defense lives more precious to them than their own—lives of their beloved sons, husbands, fathers and brothers.

On May 9, 1908 a resolution was brought before Congress for the recognition of Mother's Day, but surprisingly the resolution failed to pass.  To understand why such a seemingly uncontroversial resolution would fail, we looked at the ProQuest Congressional Publications database, and here is just a taste of the debate on Mothers' Day on that day in Congress in 1908...

Senator Fulton: "If we are going to take up this line of legislative action I think we should not stop by drawing distinctions. I think we should have a 'fathers' day."'Then I have a great respect for my grandfather and I think we should have a 'grandfathers' day.' Then, perhaps, we ought to bring in our cousins , and our aunts, or uncles. I can see no reason why we should make these invidious distinctions....Everybody would agree that we should have a 'mother-in-law day.'" [Laughter.]

It took another six years before the resolution to designate the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day was passed. Soon afterwards it did not take long for businesses to see the profit potential in such a holiday. Re-enter Anna Jarvis. After the declaration of Mother's Day as a national holiday Anna became incredibly protective of her "founder status," and became openly vocal about the commercialization of Mother's Day. One notable event was when she crashed the Associated Retail Confectioners' convention and "engaged in a verbal tilt with members," saying, "I want to tell you that you are using a beautiful idea as a means of profiteering. As the founder of Mother's Day, I demand that it cease."

Things only escalated from there. Anna Jarvis was arrested when she attacked a member of the War Mothers' Association for commercializing Mother's Day. Anna then planned to bring a lawsuit against the Golden Rule Foundation, claiming she was the "founder, incorporator and copyrighter of Mother's Day," and the Foundation was wrongfully using the holiday only for commercial reasons.

Since its legitimization in 1914, despite her efforts, Mother's Day developed a life of its own, leaving the memory of Anna Jarvis in obscurity. But how did the story of Anna Jarvis end? The first sentence from her obituary in the Daily Boston Globe read: "Anna M. Jarvis, lonely spinster who founded Mother's Day and then vigorously but in vain fought against its commercialization, died today at 84—blind and penniless."

This blog post was researched entirely using NYPL's electronic resources. With over 500 online research options available, many accessible from home with a library card, we challenge you to go beyond the search engine and dig deeper online with NYPL.

Here are the sources used for this blog post. If accessing these links offsite you will need to use your New York Public Library Card.

Antolini, K. L..Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother's Day. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2014. Project MUSE,

Congressional Record for 1908 available in ProQuest Congressional Publications (1789 - Present)

"MISS JARVIS WORKS FOR MOTHER'S DAY." The Atlanta Constitution (1881-1945): 10. May 07 1912. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017  .

Jarvis, Anna. "How I Started Mother's Day." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922): 1. May 11 1913. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017  .

"TRIBUTE TO MOTHERS." The Washington Post (1877-1922): 1. May 11 1913. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017.

"MOTHER'S SUNDAY FOUNDER OBJECTS." The Christian Science Monitor (1908-Current file): 2. May 12 1924. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017  .

"Mother's Day Founder Arrested in Philadelphia Street Quarrel." The Sun (1837-1991): 1. Sep 12 1925. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017.

"MOTHER'S DAY BECOMES CENTER OF SQUABBLE." Los Angeles Times (1923-Current File): 9. Mar 11 1931. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017.

"Founder of Mothers'Day Dies Blind and Penniless." Daily Boston Globe (1928-1960): 59. Nov 25 1948. ProQuest. Web. 8 May 2017.