Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother's Day

Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother's Day

Antolini, Katharine Lane

Paperback

Series: West Virginia & Appalachia, Book 15

Biographies GeneralGeneral SociologyRegional: South

ISBN10: 1938228944
ISBN13: 9781938228940
Publisher: West Virginia University Press
Published: Apr 1 2017
Pages: 220
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.50 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

Few know the name Anna Jarvis, yet on the second Sunday in May, we mail the card, buy the flowers, place the phone call, or make the brunch reservation to honor our mothers, all because of her.

Anna Jarvis organized the first official Mother's Day celebration in Grafton, West Virginia in 1908 and then spent decades promoting the holiday and defending it from commercialization. She designed her Mother's Day celebration around a sentimental view of motherhood and domesticity, envisioning a day venerating the daily services and sacrifices of mothers within the home.

After Mother's Day became a national holiday in 1914, many organizations sought to align the holiday's meaning with changing perceptions of modern motherhood in the twentieth century. Instead of restricting a mother's service and influence solely to the domestic sphere, they emphasized the power of mothers both within their homes and throughout their communities.

Jarvis refused to accept this changing interpretation, claiming both intellectual and legal ownership of Mother's Day. Her obsession with protecting the purity of her vision sustained a war of verbal and legal assaults against rival holiday promoters, patriotic women's organizations, charitable foundations, public health reformers, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. The struggle for control of Mother's Day ultimately threatened her livelihood, physical health, and emotional stability.

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