--- title: Mother's Day: 2015 Original Message description: Read President Woodrow Wilson's Mother's Day proclamation. canonical: https://time.com/3850695/mothers-day-2015-origins/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-09T16:17:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:48:30.066Z og:title: Read the Original Mother's Day Message og:description: In honor of the holiday, read President Woodrow Wilson's proclamation og:url: https://time.com/3850695/mothers-day-2015-origins/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read the Original Mother's Day Message twitter:description: In honor of the holiday, read President Woodrow Wilson's proclamation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Read the Original Mother's Day Message ## Video: Time Explains: Mother’s Day’s Dark History [Watch (HLS stream): Time Explains: Mother’s Day’s Dark History](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Q9UI0i1S.m3u8) (2:23)  _Published 2014-05-09. Despite its image, Mother’s Day has a somewhat sordid past — including one founder who hated the holiday and eventually died in a sanitarium._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 9, 2015 4:17 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer May 9, 2015 4:17 PM UTC Philadelphia activist Anna Jarvis (1864-1948) came up with the idea for “Mother’s Day” at the beginning of the 20th century as a tribute to her mother. On May 10, 1908, in what is considered the first Mother’s Day celebration, she sent 500 carnations to Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, her mother’s church in Grafton, W.Va. (which was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1992). The event generated an enormously positive response, and after extensive lobbying and letter-writing efforts, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation on May 9, 1914, declaring the second Sunday of May “a public expression of our love and reverence for the mothers of our country.” Read his message here: [Mother’s Day Proclamation](https://www.scribd.com/doc/264676899/Mother-s-Day-Proclamation) Over time, Jarvis felt that the spirit of the day had been undermined by “greedy” floral, candy and greeting card industries, which “gouged the public,” and used the holiday as “a means of profiteering,” the [New York _Times_ reported](http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9903E2DB1339E433A2575BC1A9639C946295D6CF) on May 18, 1923. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3850695/mothers-day-2015-origins/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3850695/mothers-day-2015-origins/"},"headline":"Read the Original Mother's Day Message","datePublished":"2015-05-09T16:17:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:48:30.066Z","description":"In honor of the holiday, read President Woodrow Wilson's proclamation","url":"https://time.com/3850695/mothers-day-2015-origins/","keywords":["Newsfeed","society"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. 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