SHE FOUNDED MOTHER'S DAY

1858

IN THE BEGINNING

A hundred years ago, West Virginia became the first state in the union to proclaim Mother's Day an official holiday. Anna Jarvis founded Mother's Day to honor her beloved mother, Ann Reeves Jarvis, who died on the second Sunday in May, 1905, then spent the rest of her life fighting the holiday's commercial and political exploitation. She died alone in an asylum. Her story, and the modern day story of Mother's Day, began, of course, with her own mother.

In 1858, Ann Reeves Jarvis organized Mother's Day Work Clubs in West Virginia to improve sanitary conditions and stem her community's appalling infant mortality rates. In her lifetime, Jarvis had 13 children but saw only 4 of them live to adulthood, one of whom was Anna Jarvis.

In 1910, the governor of West Virginia made Mother's Day an official holiday on the second Sunday in May.

In 1912, Anna Jarvis created the Mother's Day International Association, because she wanted Mother's Day to be an acknowledgement of all the things mothers do for their families.

In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson made Mother's Day a national holiday. In 1915, it became an official holiday in Canada.

In 1944, at the age of 80, Anna Jarvis was placed in a mental asylum. She died in 1948, penniless and never had any children.