Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker helped Anna Jarvis establish Mother’s Day in its present form.
Wanamaker supported Jarvis’s campaign beginning in 1908 and provided a major Philadelphia venue for the movement. On May 10, 1908, a large Mother’s Day ceremony accompanied the first official church service in Grafton, West Virginia, at the Wanamaker Auditorium in his Philadelphia store.
Jarvis’s effort grew from a personal memorial for her mother, Ann Jarvis, who died in 1905, into a national campaign. Wanamaker’s financial and promotional support helped give the idea visibility beyond West Virginia. The holiday was officially recognized nationally in 1914, when Congress designated the second Sunday in May and President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation.
Wanamaker is often remembered primarily as a retail pioneer and former U.S. postmaster general, but his role in promoting Jarvis’s holiday is a distinct part of his legacy.