Father’s Day at MOWT

June 3, 2014

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Posted by Diana Stanley, Museum Volunteer and Customer Service Representative

On Sunday, June 15 bring dad in for a day of historic adventure at the Museum of World Treasures. From noon to 5 p.m. on Father's Day all dads get in free with a paid youth or adult child admission. Bring the family to learn about pre-historic dinosaurs, world war battlefields, and the wild west.

Still looking for a gift for dad? Our Museum Gift Shop has you covered. Stop in to shop for a historic-themed chess set, civil war bullets, Beatles coaster set, and more. Gift certificates for a Museum Membership are also available. Admission to the Museum is not required to shop. We thank you for your business; Museum store sales directly support our educational nonprofit mission.
 

Did you know? The history of Father’s Day is rather short in comparison to most holidays. It stems from Mother’s Day, which began as a peace-war reconciliation measure after the Civil War. Father’s Day was much slower to catch on. Perhaps this was due to the belief that fathers were less sentimental, or a lack of advocates for such a day. Eventually the holiday found its voice in Sonora Smart Dodd. Mrs. Dodd’s father, Jackson Smart, was a Civil War veteran and a widower who raised his six children singlehandedly in Washington. After hearing about Mother’s Day, Dodd asked for a similar holiday commemorating fathers. Coordinating with churches and a local YMCA, her town of Spokane, Washington, hosted the first Father’s Day celebration on the third Sunday of June in 1910.

For decades, Dodd promoted Father’s Day until it reached the national level. The holiday did not become popular until World War II, when advertisers promoted it as a way of supporting father’s fighting in the war. Still, Father’s Day lagged behind in congressional support until another thankful daughter, Senator Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, raised awareness with the biting criticism that, “Congress has been guilty now for forty years of the worst possible oversight…perpetuated against the gallant fathers…of our land.” Due at least in part to Senator Smith’s efforts, President Nixon recognized it as a federal holiday in 1972.

For more information about this Father's Day Special, please contact the Museum at 31.263.1311.