Happy Birthday, Anna Jarvis, Founder of Mother’s Day

Anna Jarvis was born on May 1, 1864, in the town of Webster, W.V. She was the ninth of Ann Marie and Granville Jarvis’ eleven children, and one of only four who survived to adulthood. When Anna was an infant, the family moved to Grafton, where she received her early education. In 1881, she enrolled at the Augusta Female Academy in Staunton, Va., now known as Mary Baldwin College. After finishing college, she returned to Grafton, where she remained as a schoolteacher for seven years.

From her early childhood, Anna was deeply inspired by the work of her mother, Ann, who became her example of what could be done to help others. Ann Jarvis organized Mothers' Work Day Clubs to teach women the basics of sanitation and nursing. These Clubs remained neutral during the Civil War, tending to soldiers from both the Union and the Confederacy. After the war, Ann organized an annual Mothers’ Friendship Day to help reunite families and communities torn apart by the war. When Anna was only 12 years old, she heard her mother express her wish for a day dedicated to the celebration of mothers across the nation.

After her mother’s death in 1905, Anna sought to carry out her mother’s wish and institute a national day to honor all mothers. After tireless lobbying, Anna managed to organize the first Mother’s Day Service on Sunday, May 10, 1907 (some sources say 1908) at Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton. The ceremony was extremely simple: Anna had 500 white carnations handed out to mothers in the congregation to symbolize the purity of motherhood. Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914 when President Woodrow Wilson declared it a day of national observance.

According to historian Katharine Antolini, Anna didn’t conceive of Mother’s Day as a holiday, but rather as “an intimate day between you and your mom.” Before long, however, the holiday began to lose its original purity and became a commercial event. Disillusioned by this turn of events, Anna waged war against the card, candy and flower industries, criticizing them for making money from her idea. She organized many campaigns to stop the commercialization of Mother’s Day, and was even arrested for attempting to break up a meeting of American War Mothers who, she claimed, had usurped her white carnation symbol. Nevertheless, her many attempts to restore the holiday’s original simplicity were unsuccessful; Mother’s Day had escaped from her control.

Anna retreated into seclusion and converted her house into a shrine dedicated to her mother. The considerable inheritance her father had left her after his death in 1902 faded way during the Great Depression, leaving her poor and alone. By the age of 80, she was transferred to the Marshall Square Sanitarium, a mental facility where she remained until her death in 1948. Ironically, the Floral Exchange secretly paid her bills. According to a reporter who visited her before her death, quoted by People Magazine, Anna bitterly stated "that she was sorry she had ever started Mother's Day."

Anna is buried next to her mother in Philadelphia’s West Laurel Hill Cemetery. The site of her birth now hosts a museum dedicated to Jarvis, her mother and all mothers across America.

Throughout the years, Mother’s Day has increasingly evolved to become an event almost exclusively dedicated to retail and marketing. Expensive presents, crowded department store sales, elaborate bouquets and fancy dinners have replaced the simple, handwritten note that Anna recommended. In 2008, the National Retail Federation estimated that Americans would spend $15 billion for Mother’s Day; dining out was expected to be the biggest expense.