As we celebrate the important women in our lives today, it's worth taking a moment to reflect on the history of the the holiday that honors our mothers. In today's Letters from an American newsletter, historian Heather Cox Richardson notes that well before Anna Jarvis established a day to recognize mothers in 1908, Julia Ward Howe led a post-Civil War mothers' day effort aimed at gaining power for women to effect societal change.
- Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American-051124
heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-11-2024 - National Women's History Museum
Julia Ward Howe: www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/julia-ward-howe - National Portrait Gallery-Julia Ward Howe (image above)
https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.65.31 - Washington Post-051124
Anna Jarvis: She Invented Mother's Day--then waged a lifelong campaign against it
https://wapo.st/3JWr2EP (gift link, no paywall)
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