Back in 1924 "Poppy Day" joined "Decoration Day" and "Memorial Day" in the advertising and comment on the holiday.
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| Civil War Memorial, City View |
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| May 30th, 1924 |
Poppy Day as an independent thing appears new here. Internationally, Poppy Day has existence independent of the US Memorial Day, and here was mostly consolidated into it.
In July of 1923 the phrase "Poppy Day" had appeared here in the wholly secular context of a "City Beautiful" and "Floral" theme
for the "Salem Slogan" and "Pep and Progress" pages, but not in any
Memorial Day context. This use in 1924 was new here in Salem.
The morning paper had published the famous poem, which was not new, and some extensions, which did seem new.
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| The poem and additions, May 30th, 1924 |
Outside of Salem, here's an earlier observance in April rather than in May and for French orphans, for kids.
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| Logan Republican April 22nd, 1920 |
Here is the similar observance closer to Decoration Day.
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| Omaha Daily Bee, May 23rd, 1920 |
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| Casper Daily Tribune, May 26th, 1923 |
So it was interesting to see not just "poppies for Memorial Day," but "Poppy Day" by itself.
Another poem absorbed the Indian Wars and the Alamo into the holiday, neither of which we center today in Memorial Day observance.
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| May 30th, 1924 |
In 1924 they also highlighted picnicking. "All was not sadness yesterday, for scores of picnic parties had been organized."
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| May 31st, 1924 |
They also highlighted a normative autoism. "Street car service was doubled in order to accommodate those who did not own automobiles."
The afternoon paper stuck with "Decoration Day" for the front page.
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| May 30th, 1924 |
Their editorial discussed explicitly the transition from Decoration Day to Memorial Day.
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| May 30th, 1924 |
The morning paper's editorial focused on Civil War and Decoration Day themes.
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| May 30th, 1924 |
One ad showed Civil War veterans remembering Gettysburg, and I cannot discern whether they are both Union or if the man on the left is supposed to be a Confederate veteran, and the ad another version of a "unity" message. The style of each man was certainly more legible to readers in 1924. It's also hard to imagine any contemporary advertising mentioning a foe from a war in memory in this way.
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| May 30th, 1924 |
2 comments:
Wow, the recognition of our “feudal control” over the Philippines and that our imperialism was tainting us is really something.
A great book on this period is Daniel Immerwahr’s “How to Hide an Empire”
https://www.abebooks.com/Hide-Empire-History-Greater-United-States/31204890359/bd?ref_=ps_ms_267691761&cm_mmc=msn-_-comus_dsa-_-naa-_-naa&msclkid=f2027b38a49b13b744101d61c35fa6a0
That's from George Putnam and his afternoon paper, the Capital Journal. He's a fascinating mixture, clear-sighted about some things in a real contrast with the morning paper, the Statesman.
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