Mother's Day in Legal History

For more than a century, the second Sunday in May has marked the Mother's Day holiday in the United States. A Congressional joint resolution passed on May 8, 1914 recognized the holiday, and requested that the President issue a proclamation to display the U.S. flag on the second Sunday in May in order to recognize "public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country." This language about the purpose of Mother's Day can still be found in the current U.S. Code, at 36 U.S.C. § 117. Woodrow Wilson issued the first presidential proclamation recognizing the national holiday one day later, on May 9, 1914; a copy of the original proclamation document can be viewed online at the National Archives.

Most modern Americans likely associate Mother's Day with flowers, greeting cards, and brunch. This news would disappoint Anna Jarvis, who is widely credited as the originator of Mother's Day. A West Virginia native, Jarvis organized early local Mother's Day church celebrations in honor of her own mother, Ann Reeves, who died in 1905; she selected the second Sunday in May since it was the closest date to her mother's death. Jarvis began a letter-writing campaign to encourage state governments to recognize Mother's Day as an official holiday. Her home state of West Virginia recognized "Mothers' Day" (note the plural vs. singular possessive) in 1910; an online copy of the proclamation can be found in the Duke Libraries Catalog.

Following the national recognition, Anna Jarvis later bristled against the commercialization of what she perceived as a "holy day" to recognize the contributions of mothers, encouraging boycotts of florists and successfully fighting against efforts to rebrand "Mother's Day" as "Parents' Day." Historian Katherine Lane Antolini summarizes this history in a Smithsonian Magazine article and gives it expansive treatment in her book Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother's Day (in print at Perkins/Bostock HQ759.2 .A57 2014 & online). For help with locating legislative history materials – about Mother's Day or any other topic – check out our research guide to Federal Legislative History or Ask a Librarian.