Friends of the New York State Library

With the arrival of the new spring season of every year in May, we celebrate our mothers for every contribution and sacrifice they make for us. Similar to this time of year, our mothers take away the cold, dark, and dreariness of a long wintertime and bring us into the bright, beautiful colors of spring. The Tulip Festival in Albany, New York, is one event in particular that reflects this special time of year.

Image Source: Jenny Diaz

The first Mother’s Day, as a national holiday, began from the efforts of the mother-daughter duo, Ann Marie Reeves Jarvis and Anna Jarvis. Ann Marie was a social activist in West Virginia before, during, and after the time of the Civil War. She recognized the hardships on her community as a result of the war and responded by organizing clubs to assist in their needs. As early as 1858, she organized clubs for women called, Mothers’ Day Work Clubs. These clubs put able-bodied women to work and assisted in improving the living conditions of afflicted families. Among other things, Ann Marie and her club members raised money to buy medicine and bring in hired-help to children with ill-stricken mothers. Dr. James Edmund Reeves, the brother of Ann Marie, supported his sister’s cause by providing medicine and medical training to the women in her clubs. During the war, many were conflicted by supporting the efforts of the Union or the Confederacy, but Ann Marie disregarded such divisions, welcoming her aid to suffering soldiers on both sides of the fence.

Until the day she died, Ann Marie continued working toward a day that would observe mothers for all the sacrifices they make for their families and the community at large. When Ann Marie passed away in 1905, her daughter Anna distributed 500 white carnation flowers to every woman in the congregation of her mother’s church, St. Andrews. The following year, she held a memorial in honor of her mother’s contributions to the community. Inspired by her mother’s tireless efforts, Anna campaigned tirelessly in order to attain a national holiday for mothers in America. In 1914, Anna and her mother’s efforts would finally be recognized by President Woodrow Wilson, who signed an official measure establishing Mother’s Day as an annual holiday to be observed on every second Sunday in the month of May. As a result, Mother’s Day was a success across the country.

Although Anna envisioned Mother’s Day to be a quaint familial holiday, celebrated with small gatherings and carnations worn symbolically as a badge, the success of the day turned out to be a little different than was expected. Florists, greeting card companies, and other commercial organizations took the holiday and capitalized on the idea. Anna protested against its growing commercialization, arguing in regard to its impersonal nature, but Mother’s Day would remain to be celebrated commercialized or not. In the end, perhaps, it’s not how we celebrate Mother’s Day, but what and who we’re celebrating it for, our mothers, the most priceless women in the world.

Want to learn more about the origins of Mother’s Day? Visit the New York State Library and browse the catalog for these titles:

-Joint Resolution Designating September 27, 1987, as “Gold Star Mothers Day.”
  United States. 1987.

-Mother’s day: its history, origin, celebration, spirit, and significance as related in prose and verse 
  Rice, Susan Tracy. 1936.

-Mother’s day and father’s day book; containing recitations, songs, exercises, toasts, plans for banquets, and a play 
  Moffett, Paul.  1935.

Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783 in New York, New York. Irving was born the youngest boy of eleven children, four of whom had died long before he was born. His parents were Scottish-English immigrants, who settled in Manhattan near the end of the American Revolutionary War. In honor of the American hero and first president, Washington Irving was named after George Washington and met him when he was six years old. His older brothers followed in the trade of their father as a part of the small community of merchants in the city, but not Irving. He showed a genuine interest and talent for writing and his brothers were very supportive of this passion, providing financial support at times.

When Irving was a young man, an outbreak of yellow fever spread rampantly throughout Manhattan. In fear of losing their youngest son to the disease, his parents sent him upstate to live with a friend in Tarrytown. Irving’s new home enraptured him; he spent much of his time frequenting the nearby town of Sleepy Hollow, learning about the Dutch culture which resided there since the first settlers and wandering about the Catskill Mountains. Many years later, this little Dutch town would become the setting for one of his most popular short stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

Later, when Irving established himself as a respected writer in both the U.S. and Europe, he began producing many of his most popular literary works. The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent was published as a two volume book in seven installments over a period of two years (1819-1820). Rip Van Winkle was released in the first installment of these short-stories, resulting in instant popularity. Popular, indeed, but many of his works fell victim to theft. As his initial publications were released in the U.S., people began reprinting them in British newspapers without his permission or knowing. At the time, however, the ownership of one’s intellectual property was nonexistent in international copyright law. Without legal ground to lean on, Irving resolved to have his literature published at the same time in America and Britain to prevent further piracy.

He traveled abroad for seventeen years, living in Paris, Madrid and London for a time, acquainting himself in social circles and actively investing himself in the political scene. Irving was not only known as a popular writer of his time, but as a player and contributor in politics, receiving a medal from the Royal Society of Literature and an honorary doctorate of civil law from Oxford during his service as the Secretary to the American Legation in London. Later, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to Spain. He returned to Tarrytown late in his life, where he would write and live out his final years.

The success of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent, paved the way for many more great literary works he would produce throughout his lifetime, in both fiction and non-fiction, including Bracebridge Hall, Tales of a Traveller, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus and so on. While some of his biographical works were intended to be categorized under “non-fiction,” they were classified under a new genre of all their own, called Romantic History/Biography because Irving incorporated fiction along side the history as well. Many of his literary works can be found under pseudonyms he used since his earliest publications, including Jonathan Oldstyle, Diedrich Knickerbocker, and Geoffrey Crayon.

To learn more about Washington Irving visit the New York State Library and browse the catalog for a detailed listing on this collection.

-Rip Van Winkle & The legend of Sleepy Hollow 
    Irving, Washington. 1974.

-Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle 
    Locker, Thomas. 2008.

-On the road with Washington Irving : chiefly in 1832
    Bowden, Mary Weatherspoon. 2009.

-A history of New York, from the beginning of the world to the end of the Dutch dynasty : containing among many surprising and curious matters, the unutterable ponderings of Walter the Doubter, the disastrous projects of William the Testy, and the chivalric achievements of Peter the Headstrong, the three Dutch governors of New Amsterdam : being the only authentic history of the times that ever hath been or ever will be published 
    Irving, Washington. 
    In Manuscripts & Special Collections.

The United States celebrates Women’s History Month in March annually. In 1978, schools in the district of Sonoma, California started participating in a Women’s History Week by influence of the International Women’s Day on March 8th. In 1981, the first Joint Congressional Resolution proclaimed a Women’s History Week. As the holiday was becoming more popular throughout the country, more schools and universities began participating in the weekly event. By 1987, Congress expanded Women’s History Week to a month. In recent years, President Barack Obama has emphasized this special time of year, by releasing annual reports on popular women in history and the many accomplishments women have contributed to American history. The Friends of the New York State Library show their appreciation for Women’s History Month with a spotlight biography on a native New Yorker who made her mark in American history by selfless acts, progressive thinking, and relentless ambition to make changes in our nation.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton was born in Johnston, New York in 1815 and occupied many jobs during her lifetime: writer, abolitionist, women’s rights activist, and suffragist. Stanton grew up among her eleven siblings, but experienced the great loss of six of her brothers and sisters during her youth. Her father, Daniel Cady, was a New York Supreme Justice and her first influence in politics. Her mother, Margaret Cady, was described as being very void of much affection toward Stanton and her surviving siblings because she fell into a depression after the loss of her other children. With her father preoccupied with legal cases and her mother deep in depression, Stanton was raised by her eleven-year-older sister, Tryphena and her husband.

Before slavery was outlawed in New York State in 1827, Stanton’s family owned a male slave named Teabout. The memoir, Eighty Years & Me, which she wrote later in life, alludes to Teabout living with her family during her youth and providing tender care for her and her siblings, but not the fact that they owned him as a slave.

Stanton received a formal education at the Johnson Academy, where she surpassed many of her male peers, particularly in Greek. After graduation, Stanton enrolled in the Troy Female Seminary, now named the Emma Willard School in honor of its founder, but many of her male schoolmates attended Union College, a college for men only at the time in Schenectady.

Shortly following her time in Troy, she married temperance activist and abolitionist, Henry Brewster Stanton; he was a friend of her cousin, Gerrit Smith. On their honeymoon in 1840, Stanton met Lucretia Mott, a Quaker, feminist, and abolitionist, at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, England. Mott invoked her passion for politics. In 1848, Stanton, Mott, and a group of women’s rights activists organized the fist women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls. Stanton wrote the Declaration of Sentiments for the convention, following the line of reason within the U.S. Declaration of Independence, but rather than citing that “all men are created equal,” she adjusted it to read that all men and women are created equal.  

The movement was on its way, gaining popularity and many followers. In 1851, Stanton met Susan B. Anthony and initially joined her in the movement of temperance, but later Stanton refocused their political direction toward women’s rights and suffrage. Together, the women struggled for the voice of women to be given the right to vote. When the fifteenth amendment was passing through Congress, Stanton and Anthony organized the National Women’s Suffrage Association (NWSA) in 1869. They worked relentlessly, urging Congress to recognize women’s rights in a broad range of social, economic, and political issues aside from suffrage. In spite of their efforts, the fifteenth amendment passed in 1870 without the inclusion of women’s rights.

Women finally gained their constitutional right to vote fifty years later, long after Stanton and Anthony would have ever had the chance to be a part of this monumental change in America. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson presented the suffrage bill to Congress multiple times, but each occasion failed to ratify the amendment. Finally, on May 21^st the nineteenth amendment passed with a landslide of favorable votes: 304 – 89. 

To learn more about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and women’s history, check out these titles from the NYS Library:

-Elizabeth Cady Stanton : women’s suffrage and the first vote
Adiletta, Dawn C. 2005.

-The political thought of Elizabeth Cady Stanton : women’s rights and the American political traditions
Davis, Sue. 2008.

-Elizabeth Cady Stanton : an American life
Ginzberg, Lori D. 2009.

For more titles, browse the New York State Library catalog.

African-American History Month (also known as Black History Month) is celebrated every February in the United States to commemorate important people and events in African-American history. African-American History Month began in 1926 as “Negro History Week” by the influence of historian Carter G. Woodson, who has been referred to as the father of black history. Negro History Week had a very successful impact on the black community by spawning the creation of black history clubs and gaining the increased interest of grade-school teachers and white progressives. Eventually, Negro History Week expanded to a month-long event after gaining national recognition from the federal government in 1976. Since 1970, Black History Month has been celebrated at KentStateUniversity. African-American History Month is an integral part of American History as it reminds every American citizen about the battles the black community fought through to win their equality, liberty, and civil rights as American citizens. In honor of African-American History Month, the United States observes the courageous spirits of Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, Billie Holiday, Langston Hughes, Martin Luther King, Jr., President Barack Obama, and many, many more!

Harriet Tubman – Harriet Tubman was born into slavery around 1820, but the exact date is arguable as many slave birthdates and places were not often recorded. Tubman experienced abuse from her slave owners while growing up in Dorchester County, Maryland. They owned Tubman’s entire family and sold many of her siblings to buyer at any chance. During her adolescence, she suffered a head injury by accidentally getting between a run-away slave and his irate owner; he threw a two-pound weight at the run-away, but missed and hit Tubman instead. The blow left her unconscious for two days, but she didn’t receive medical attention because her owner didn’t want to spend money for the treatment. As a result, she reportedly suffered from black-out episodes the rest of her life. When Tubman got older, her owner tried to sell her, but never found a buyer. Shortly after, he died and Tubman knew that her family was likely to be separated and sold to new owners. Eventually, Tubman ran away to Philadelphia, but returned to Maryland on thirteen occasions to free her family and relatives from the clutches of slavery. Tubman traveled at night and hid during the day by the means of an Underground Railroad, a number of safe-houses, networked together in support of her mission. She traveled as far north as Canada to free escaped slaves after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had passed, requiring Union States to help in the effort of recapturing fugitive slaves.

Fredrick Douglass – Fredrick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, around the year 1818, but the exact date is unknown which Douglass writes about in his memoir, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Born to a slave, Douglass was separated from his mother at a young age and his father was believed to be a white man; one of his owners. When Douglass was moved to Baltimore, his mistress taught him how to read. Eventually, however, Douglass would have to continue lessons on his own, including how to read and write. His newfound education encouraged and tormented him at the same time as he came to learn the meaning of the word “abolition.” Douglass experienced the brutalities of slavery, being moved from one owner to the next, starved, and beaten. Soon, he escaped to the North, but because he was a run-away slave, he could be recaptured and sent back to his owner. As a result, he left the country to live freely in Ireland and England. After two years, he would gain the support of European abolitionists, who helped him raise enough money to buy his freedom in the U.S. Although, his European supporters asked him to stay in England to escape the racism in the United States, Douglass returned to the U.S. to help his thousands of brethren, bound by the heavy chains of slavery. Later, Douglass became an active abolitionist, giving orations and writing several autobiographies about antislavery and the abolitionist movement.

Billie Holiday – Billie Holiday was born in 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Baltimore. With an absent father and a working mother, she was raised by a relative. Holiday experienced hard times during her youth with run-ins with the law, rape, and prostitution, which eventually led to her dropping out of school. Holiday moved to Harlem, where she and her mother worked together at a brothel. She started singing in various nightclubs in Harlem, gaining recognition for her unique vocal style, and being compared to Louis Armstrong for having a “good sense of lyric content” (Wikipedia, 2013). Holiday was signed to numerous record labels throughout her singing career. Her melodic improvisation revolutionized jazz singing by introducing new styles of phrasing and tempo which can be heard in such hits as “God Bless the Child” and “Lady Sings the Blues.” In 1939, Holiday recorded the heart-wrenching and popular song “Strange Fruit,” a protest song against lynching which was still occurring in the South. She closed every show at the nightclub, Café Society, with the song, closing her eyes and singing it like a prayer. Holiday has won countless awards for her musical talents, and in 1973, her legacy was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Langston Hughes – Langston Hughes was born in 1902 in Joplin, Missouri to a school teacher and a father who eventually divorced his mother to escape the racism in the United States. Hughes spent much of his time in Kansas with his paternal grandmother as a child because his mother traveled often for work. Later he moved with his mother to Cleveland, Ohio where he began to show exemplary talent in writing during high school. He wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook, and started writing short stories and poetry. He also wrote his first jazz poem, a type of poetry in which he popularized, called “When Sue Wears Red.”   Although Hughes began to attend ColumbiaUniversity, he left the school after struggling with racism. He later enrolled in LincolnUniversity, an historically black college in Chester County, Pennsylvania. After he earned his bachelor’s degree, he returned to New York and became a part of the popular Harlem Renaissance. In Hughes’ poetry, he tried to depict the reality of hardships and prejudices experienced by the poor black community. Hughes wrote his first published book in 1930, called “Not Without Laughter,” and would continue to publish new collections and writings throughout his literary career.

Martin Luther King, Jr. – Michael Luther King was born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia and later changed his named to “Martin” in honor of the German priest and theologian during the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. He grew up in a family of clergymen, beginning with his grandfather in 1914 and his father in 1931 at EbenezerBaptist Church. Ironically, however, King was not as enthusiastic about the faith he was brought up to believe during his youth as he came to be in his adulthood. However, after studying the Bible in-depth, King changed his outlook on religion and was set on a path to a life in ministry. King graduated from MorehouseCollege, a distinguished African-American institution in Atlanta with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. After graduation in 1948, he attended Crozer’s Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania to earn a Bachelor of Divinity degree. After earning a fellowship at Crozer, he was able to pursue a doctorate in philosophy at BostonUniversity in 1953. King was a prominent figure in the Montgomery bus boycott, which not only brought justice to Rosa Parks, but the local black community as it required the City of Montgomery to revoke its law mandating segregation in public transportation. But segregation, racism, and prejudice were just the issue; he wanted justice, equality, and changes for the black community across America. As a result, he lectured on racial and civil rights issues throughout the country and demonstrated peaceful protests along with other black church leaders and civil rights activists. In spite of the verbal and physical abuse and the arrests he often faced during his mission for civil rights, King demonstrated the famous March on Washington for a peaceful change. Two-hundred thousand people gathered along Lincoln’s Memorial on August 28, 1963 to hear King recite his famous and influential speech, “I Have a Dream.” His unrelenting efforts resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which authorized the federal government to outlaw the discriminatory acts on ethnicity, religion, and women. Moreover, segregation laws were lifted and voting requirements were amended to end discriminatory practices against the black community which resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He received the Noble Peace Prize in 1964 and continued to demonstrate peaceful protests throughout the 1960’s, to inspire change in the world.

President Barack Obama – Barack Obama was born into an interracial family in 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Obama’s parent’s divorced when he was young and he moved around with his mother frequently during his childhood. In fact, they moved to Indonesia, shortly after she remarried. Young Obama attended school and experienced both lower and upper class living. Eventually, he moved back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents and attend a private high school. After high school, he attended OccidentalCollege in Los Angeles, but then transferred to ColumbiaUniversity to receive his bachelor’s degree in political science with a concentration in international relations. After graduation, Obama worked as a community coordinator in Chicago between 1983-1985 creating, both, job training programs and tutoring programs. Before moving back to the east coast in 1988 to attend HarvardLawSchool, he traveled to Europe and Kenya to visit his father’s birthplace. He received his J.D., magnum cum laude in 1991. He returned to Chicago to work as a Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Slowly making his way into the political arena, he served as a board member, director, and chairman for numerous outreach organizations in Chicago, and was elected State Senate in 1996. In 2005, he was sworn in as U.S. Senator and announced that he would resign in 2008 to focus on his candidacy as president. On November 4, 2008 he won the presidential election on the platform of “hope” and “change” in the United States and became the first African-American to be elected president. In 2012, President Barack Obama, introduced his new campaign, “It Begins With Us” which won him a second presidential term on November 6, 2012.

(Source for all Images: Wikimedia Commons)

Image Source: Minnesota Historical Society

Michael Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King, Sr. was also named “Michael,” but later adopted the name “Martin” in honor of the German priest and theologian during the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther. Likewise, Michael Jr. later changed his name to Martin. He grew up in a family of clergymen, beginning with his grandfather in 1914 and his father in 1931 at Ebenezer Baptist  Church. Ironically, however, King was not as enthusiastic about the faith he was brought up to believe during his youth as he came to be in his adulthood. In fact, King often questioned religion and disliked overly-passionate displays of religious acts. He could not reconcile how religion fit into the changing and modern world. However, after studying the Bible in-depth, King changed his outlook on religion and was set on a path to a life in ministry.

King was said to be a precocious child, skipping both the 9^th and 11^th grades in high school.  Following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, King graduated from Morehouse College, a distinguished African-American institution in Atlanta with a Bachelor’s degree in sociology. After graduation in 1948, he attended Crozer’s Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania to earn a Bachelor of Divinity degree. After earning a fellowship at Crozer, he was able to pursue a doctorate in philosophy at Boston University in 1953. While in Boston, King met Coretta Scott, an aspiring singer and musician at the New England Conservatory. They married in 1954 and later had two sons and two daughters. Still working on his dissertation, King moved back down south and served as pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1955, he earned his PhD from Boston University.

At the end of the year, King was informed about an arrest of a woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery. The woman was 42-year-old Rosa Parks; she was tired from a long day of working. When the section designated for white passengers only had reached capacity, several white men were left standing which urged the bus driver to demand that Parks, as well as a few others, give up their seats. While the others reluctantly listened to the bus driver, Parks refused. Subsequently, she was arrested for violating Montgomery City Code. That very night, King along with other civil rights activists gathered to plan a citywide bus boycott to protest the unjustifiable arrest of Rosa Parks. The boycott lasted over a year, during which the black community endured harassment, threats, and no public transportation. After many court sessions and lost cases and dollars, the City of Montgomery finally revoked its law mandating segregation in public transportation.

The Montgomery bus boycott only marked the beginning of national protests that King had set out to embark upon. He wanted justice, equality, and change for the black community in America. King lectured on racial and civil rights issues across the country and demonstrated peaceful protests, which he followed after the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, along with other black church leaders and civil rights activists. Soon, King supporters began performing “sit-ins” at lunch counters throughout the south. Similar to the segregation on buses, lunch counters and restaurants had designated areas for whites and blacks, but black protesters began fighting this inequality by sitting in the white-section and refusing to leave it. In spite of the harassment and violence that often resulted in these “sit-ins,” the law mandating this segregation was also lifted.

Again and again, peaceful protests for civil rights and equality were demonstrated by the black community throughout the country. Through the encouragement of the politically strong and powerful leadership of King, little-by-little the Civil Rights Movement was blossoming and cementing itself into the collective memory of American history. In 1960, King gained the advocacy of John F. Kennedy after being arrested for a petty traffic violation. In 1963, King visited Birmingham in Alabama and assembled a group of fervent protesters to hold a demonstration. The event gained national attention after learning of King’s arrest and the violent treatment of the protesters by the Birmingham police force. King was criticized by black and white clergymen for the demonstration because it put young children and innocent citizens in attendance at risk. Despite the unfortunate events at Birmingham, he continued to campaign.

After his release from Birmingham jail, King planned another and even larger demonstration with his supporters to March on Washington for a peaceful change. As a result, 200,000 people gathered along Lincoln’s Memorial on August 28, 1963 to hear King recite his famous and influential speech, “I Have a Dream.”

King’s unrelenting efforts resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which authorized the federal government to outlaw the discriminatory acts on ethnicity, religion, and women. Moreover, segregation laws were lifted and voting requirements were amended to end discriminatory practices against the black community which resulted in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Before King’s untimely death on April 4, 1968, he received the Noble Peace Prize in 1964 and continued to demonstrate peaceful protests throughout the 1960’s to inspire change in the world:

“I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

In honor of this American hero, the United States celebrates another year of his legacy on January 21, 2013 as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.