By Art Lizotte
APS Member 222367 (see Art's other Mother's Day article here)
Figure 1 Postcard with photos of Anna Jarvis, her mother, Andrews Church and the house where Anna was born in Grafton, WV. Authors collection.
When I discovered that there were multiple people who claimed to be the founders of Mother’s Day, I decided to dig into the history further. I made collecting Mother’s Day covers one of my specialties and along the way, I have become a Mother’s Day historian. Thus, when I look at all the philatelic content that has been created over the years, I have found that philatelists don’t always get history right. This article is meant to be a word to the wise – always double check your history.
For the context of the covers presented, here’s a bit of Mother’s Day history. Anna Jarvis’ mother died on May 9, 1905. Anna wanted to honor her mother on the anniversary of her death in 1905, but she couldn’t because of a smallpox outbreak. The memorial service for Anna’s mother was held on the second Sunday of May 1906.
On the second Sunday of May 1907, at Andrew’s Church in Grafton, WV, a Memorial Mother’s Day service was held in honor of Anna’s mother, the mothers that worked with her, and all mothers who had given their best. At that service, a church leader announced upon Anna’s request, that there would be a national Mother’s Day holiday on the second Sunday of May 1908 and every year thereafter.
Jarvis began her Mother’s Day movement in 1908 with a Mother’s Day service being celebrated in Philadelphia where she lived, and in Grafton, where she grew up. It was also celebrated in mostly Presbyterian churches around the country. Unfortunately, the Congressional bill creating the holiday she had believed would pass did not. It wouldn’t become a national holiday until May 1914 when Congress passed the bill and President Woodrow Wilson made the first Mother’s Day proclamation.
One confusing point was the 1913 Mother’s Day Congressional bill that simply requested the federal government, including the president, to wear a white flower on Mother’s Day. The bill didn’t create the holiday, it only requested that the federal government honor mothers by the tradition of wearing a flower.
Now for those unfortunate philatelists who got it wrong over the years. For the early ones, you can’t blame them too much because it was much harder back then to obtain the information you needed. They didn’t have the Internet. The newspaper journalists of 1913 didn’t always get history correct either. Yet, those philatelists should have known given that it was now 20 years since the first proclamation and the reason for the 1934 issuance of the Mothers of America stamp (SC#737). For those who got it wrong dozens of years later, well there isn’t much excuse – sorry. Maybe these event covers can be considered an EFO.
First up is the first day cover by C. Stephen Anderson and is one of the few covers issued in 1934 with so many “facts.” It states that the Congress created Mother’s Day in 1913. Now, in several 1913 newspapers an article concerning that Congressional Mother’s Day resolution closed with the phrase, “… thereby fixing for all time Mother’s Day,” which, for some, must have meant that the holiday had been created. Or maybe you can chalk these errors up to typos, because Mother’s Day in 1914 was May 10th but it was May 11th in 1913. Also incorrect is the date of Jarvis’ mother death. Either way, do check that fine print!
This 1987 event cover by the F. D. Roosevelt Philatelic Society receives partial credit. The 1907 statement is correct. But the second is incorrect and seems to have used Anderson’s cover as reference. Dang!
This 2014 event cover (whose designer will remain nameless) incorrectly states that Mother’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of May. And the first Mother’s Day was nationally celebrated in 1908. True, the first presidential Mother’s Day proclamation was made on May 10, 1914, but it wasn’t the first Mother’s Day. Oops!
This 1934 event cover might make you think twice, but it is marking the 1908 celebration of Jarvis’ Mother’s Day in Philadelphia, not the creation of the national holiday. Yes, it can be confusing, but Mother’s Day has two dates to commemorate, the first national celebration and when it was made a national holiday.
I’ll conclude with this 1948 cover commemorating the 40th anniversary of Mother’s Day that was celebrated in Grafton, WV. The stamp was used on a variety of envelop sizes and on postcards along with period appropriate stamps. While I have several of these in my collection, I have yet to find one with the “Mother’s Day” stamp on it. Was that an oops on their part?
About the Author
Art Lizotte is a freelance writer, philatelist, and part-time historian, living in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has written several philatelic articles for the Rocky Mountain Philatelic Library newsletter. He became interested in Mother’s Day history when he came across philatelic items highlighting the battle for who founded the holiday, with four people contending for the title. Since then, he has collected all sorts of Mother’s Day items associated with the holiday and researched its history.
References
- Katherine Lane Antolini, Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for the Control of Mother's Day (Morgantown WV, West Virginia University Press, 2014)
- Howard Wolfe, Behold Thy Mother: Mother's Day and the Mother's Day Church (Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1962)
- Norman Kendal, Mother's Day: A History of Its Founding and Its Founder (Grafton, WV:D. Grant Smith, 1937)
- New York Tribune, May 11, 1913, p. 1
- Washington Times, May 10, 1913, p.2
- Congressional Record, 1908, 1913, 1914