The tremendous success of Jarvis’s mission coincided with the emergence of vile profiteers who began peddling flowers, cards, and candy for the annual occasion. She lobbied hard-ferociously, some would say-and on May 9, 1914, she triumphed when President Woodrow Wilson signed a joint resolution in Congress and proclaimed the second Sunday in May “a public expression of love and reverence for the mothers of our country.”īut that’s when things started to turn sour. Under the sponsorship of the merchant and philanthropist John Wanamaker, Jarvis soon began to push for a national holiday that would serve as a perpetual tribute to her personal heroine. She ordered 500 carnations, Mother Jarvis’s favorite flower, one for each member of her church congregation. The story began in Grafton, West Virginia, where in May 1908, Jarvis organized a memorial service for her dearly departed mother, who had passed away three years before. While it drove the spinster schoolteacher to relentlessly push for a national day of recognition for mothers-especially her own-it appalled her that Mother’s Day devolved into such a crassly commercial monstrosity.
Who had a bad day in history over the upcoming weekend? Find out in the excerpt below from Farquhar's book " Bad Days in History: A Gleefully Grim Chronicle of Misfortune, Mayhem, and Misery for Every Day of the Year." On May 8, 1632, an English court called upon the unfortunate printers of a King James Bible, who let more than a few spelling and grammar errors slip through the cracks such as, "Thou shalt commit adultery." In the final installment of our "Bay Days in History" conversations, author Michael Farquhar Here & Now's Robin Young take us back to 1632.
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