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Honor Your Mother

In May we honor our mothers on Mother's Day. On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation making Mother's Day the second Sunday in May. This year, the holiday falls on May 11. The May 9 entry is from the "Jump Back in Time" section of America's Library. The section offers fascinating facts about each day of the year in a format that is educational and fun for kids as well as adults.

That Wonderful Mother of Mine Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. Age Thirty-two. Nipomo, California

The Library's Web sites are rich with images, posters, music and other items relating to mothers. The cover as well as the sheet music for "That Wonderful Mother of Mine" comes from the Historic American Sheet Music collection in the American Memory Web site of nearly 8 million digital items.

In a highly amusing 1919 animated film, "Dud Leaves Home," Dud gets a spanking from his mother after breaking into her bank to buy his girlfriend an ice cream cone.

A mother of another sort, "Mother" Jones, is in the "Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929" collection in American Memory. In the photograph "President Coolidge and Mother Jones," from ca. 1924, Mother Jones (1830?-1930), born Mary Harris, a labor activist and organizer of coal miners, visited President Coolidge in the White House to endorse his bid for reelection.

One of the best-known images of a mother is Dorothea Lange's moving "Migrant Mother." Lange officially called her 1936 portrait of a farmworker and her two children "Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. Age Thirty-two. Nipomo, California." This photograph has come to symbolize the plight of farmworkers during the Great Depression.

In "Edward S. Curtis's North American Indian" you can see "Assiniboin Mother and Child" from ca. 1926.

Hundreds of images, films, sound recordings and other materials relating to mothers can be found by going to the American Memory collections search page. Type in the word "mother" and you will be surprised by the depth and diversity of what you discover.

A. Goodwin, Walter, "That Wonderful Mother of Mine," published M. Witmark & Sons, 1918. Reproduction information: Call/Reproduction No.: Music #128. For more information about reproducing this item, see Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920

B. Dorothea Lange, "Destitute Pea Pickers in California. Mother of Seven Children. Age Thirty-two. Nipomo, California," 1936. Prints and Photographs Division. Call No.: LC-USF346- 009058-C; Reproduction No. LC-USF346-009058-C DLC (b&w film transparency)

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