History of President’s Day
Greg Wilson/Anderson Observer
When I was growing up, there were two prominent portraits on every classroom wall: the Athenaeum Portrait, also known as The Athenaeum, the unfinished painting by Gilbert Stuart of United States President George Washington and the classic 1863 photo of Abraham Lincoln.
I don’t remember an elementary school classroom that didn’t include these presidents alongside the Alphabet chart by Zanner-Blosser Co. that were on the wall just above the blackboards.
Little attention was given to the presidents on the wall except on their birthdays in February. Each year on Feb. 22 we had a lesson on Washington on his birthday, and the same for Lincoln on his Feb. 12 birthday each year.
Newspapers were filled both of those days with sales connected to the famous men and their birthdays, a revised tradition that continues to this day.
Washington, whose influence and contributions to the nation can hardly be overstated, in 1879 became the first individual American to be honored with a national holiday. Lincoln’s birthday was never an individual national holiday, but was folded into the current President’s Day holiday when the Uniform Holiday Act went into effect in 1971.
The Act moved several holidays to predetermined Mondays to create long weekends for many workers. It determined Washington’s Birthday to be observed on the third Monday of February.
The federal holiday remained officially named Washington’s Birthday, but many states and retailers began promoting it as Presidents' Day, using the day to honor both Washington and Abraham Lincoln. In the years since, the day has evolved into a general celebration of all U.S. presidents.
Alabama designates the holiday as “George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s Birthday,” excluding Lincoln. Arkansas calls it “George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day,” in honor of Bates who selected nine students to integrate Central High School in Little Rock in 1957. She regularly drove the students to school and worked tirelessly to ensure they were protected from violent crowds. She also advised the group and even joined the school’s parent organization.
