A day of celebration and commemoration, Mother's Day has occupied a place on America's calendar since the early twentieth century. The woman responsible for its inception was Anna Jarvis (1864-1948), who wanted to memorialize her own mother and as a result saw the value in honoring all American mothers.

Having grown up in West Virginia, Jarvis moved to Philadelphia in 1891, where she began an extended correspondence with her mother back in her home town. Mrs. Jarvis moved to Philadelphia in 1903, where she died two years later. Her daughter Anna not only wanted to keep the memory of her mother alive, but also wanted to immortalize what she saw as the qualities of all mothers—piety, domesticity, maternal purity, loyalty, and love.

Perhaps inspired by other well-established days of remembrance such as Children's Day and Memorial Day, Jarvis set out to make Mother's...