Mothers' Day

Artist Designer Unknown

Date1928

MediumStone Lithograph

Dimensions24 x 22 in. (61 x 55.9 cm)

ClassificationsPoster

Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection

Terms

Object numberPH.5790

DescriptionThis Mothers' Day poster promoting Florists' Telegraph Delivery (FTD) is a traditional figurative composition with a restricted color palette, appropriately showing the bronze statue of a pioneer woman leading her young son by the hand into the future (she holds a bible in her other hand). The wealthy oilman Ernest Whitworth Marland, who conceived the original idea for the monumental work, held a competition for its design in 1927. This was won by sculptor Bryant Baker and the Pioneer Woman was installed in Ponca City, Oklahoma in 1930. The FTD (now Florists' Transworld Delivery) exploited the new technology of the telegraph to allow florists to form regional networks and deliver flowers more quickly than their rivals. The organization adopted the "Mercury Man" (seen at lower right) as its logo in 1912, after the messenger god known for his speedy travel.

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