Julia Ward Howe, women’s suffrage leader and author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” made the first known suggestion for Mother’s Day in 1872.
She saw it as a day dedicated to peace, to be celebrated on June 2.
But it was Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia, who, in 1907, began campaigning for nationwide observance of Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May.
In 1915, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Mother’s Day as an annual national observance.