The origin of Father's Day represents a grassroots phenomenon that characterizes American reverence for the family. Although deeply rooted in North American social culture, the popularity—and, some might say, commercial exploitation—of Father's Day has crossed national boundaries to become popular in other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom. Americans and Canadians set aside the third Sunday in June as the day children show their appreciation and gratitude for their fathers, but the earliest Father's Day celebration on record appears to have been held on July 5, 1908, in a church in Fairmont, West Virginia.

Father's Day was first celebrated in towns and cities scattered across America. The citizens of Vancouver, Washington, claim to have been the first to officially hold a town wide Father's Day ceremony, beginning in 1912. In 1915 the president of the Uptown Lions Club in Chicago was hailed as the “originator” of Father's Day when he suggested that the Lions hold a Father's Day celebration on the third Sunday in June.

Works cited:

Lloyd, J. H. (2013). Father's Day. In T. Riggs (Ed.), St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 285-286). Detroit: St. James Press. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CX2735800917/GVRL?u=berea&sid=GVRL&xid=922d9adb

See some of our titles below for more information on Father's day holiday and fatherhood:

Cover Art Kevin and His Dad by Irene Smalls; Michael Hays (Illustrator)
Call Number: S6354k - Hutchins Library - Children's Picture Books (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 1999-04-01
A simple, graceful text and illustrations infused with warmth and love make this story of a day a boy and his dad spend together a special reading experience. Young boys and their fathers will relish this book that celebrates the ordinary things dads and kids can do together. Full color.
Cover Art Fatherhood by William Marsiglio (Editor)
Call Number: 306.874 F2519 - Hutchins Library - Circulating (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 1995-04-03
Recent social and cultural changes - such as transformation in the workplace, shifting marriage and divorce patterns, the growth of the women′s movement and development of the men′s movement - have all served to change the traditional family role of fathers and to force a re-examination of the interaction between fathers and children. This collection of empirical and theoretical articles presents new theoretical models and the results of current research on the role of fathers in families. The articles cover differences in culture, class, nationality and custodial status and focus on legal, economic and policy questions.
 
Cover Art Men Can by Donald N. S. Unger
Call Number: E-Book (Berea College only)
Publication Date: 2010-07-29
Fatherhood is evolving in America. Stay at home dads are becoming more commonplace; men are becoming more visible in domestic, caregiving activities. In Men Can, writer, teacher, and father Donald Unger uses his personal experiences, stories of real-life families, as well as representations of fathers in film, on television, and in advertising, to illuminate the role of men in the increasingly fluid domestic sphere. In thoughtful interviews, Don Unger tells the stories of a half dozen families--of varied ethnicities, geographical locations, and philosophical orientations--in which fathers are either primary or equally sharing parents, personalizing what is changing in how Americans care for their children. These stories are complemented by a discussion of how the language of parenting has evolved and how media representations of fathers have shifted over several decades.    Men Can shows how real change can take place when families divide up domestic labor on a gender-neutral basis.  The families whose stories he tells offer insights into the struggles of--and opportunities for--men caring for children. When it comes to taking up the responsibility of parenting, his argument, ultimately, is in favor of respecting personal choices and individual differences, crediting and supporting functional families, rather than trying to force every household into a one-size-fits-all mold. 
 
Cover Art Fatherhood Today by Phyllis Bronstein (Editor); Carolyn Pape Cowan (Editor)
Call Number: 306.874 F252 - Hutchins Library - Circulating (3rd Floor)
Publication Date: 1988-02-26
From the Foreword of Fatherhood Today "This is more than a volume about fathers. It is a book about how social science and culture interact, mutually influencing the social roles in modern society It is not clear whether the rediscovery of fathers in the 1970's by social scientists encouraged us to notice fathers' active participation in families or whether the cultural shifts in women's work roles and alterations in men's awareness of their emotional and expressive capacities led to an awakening of interest among social researchers. In either case, this volume is a marvelous testimony of the clear interdependence of science and society." --From the Foreword by Ross D. Parke
 
Cover Art Fatherhood Politics in the United States by Anna Gavanas
Call Number: E-Book (Berea College only)
Publication Date: 2014-05-10
Are fathers being marginalized in the contemporary family? Responding to fears that they are, the self-proclaimed "fatherhood responsibility movement" (FRM) has worked since the mid-1990s to put fatherhood at the center of U.S. national politics. Anna Gavanas's Fatherhood Politics in the United States analyzes the processes, reveals the internal struggles, and traces the myths that drive this powerful movement. Unlike previous investigations that rely on literary or other secondary sources, Fatherhood Politics works from primary ethnographic material to represent a wider range of voices and actors. Interacting with and interviewing members of the most powerful and well-known national fatherhood organizations, Gavanas observed Promise Keeper rallies, men's workshops, and conferences on masculinity, fatherhood, and marriage. Providing a detailed overview of the different organizations involved and their various rhetorical strategies, Gavanas breaks down the FRM into two major wings. The "pro-marriage" wing sees marriage as the key to solving all social problems, while the "fragile family" organizations worry about unemployment, racism, and discrimination. Gavanas uses her extensive anthropological fieldwork as the basis for discussions of gender, sexuality, and race in her analysis of these competing voices. Taking us inside the internal struggles, tensions, and political machinations of the FRM, Gavanas offers a behind-the-scenes look at a movement having real impact on current social policy. Fatherhood Politics is an essential work for anyone interested in the politics of masculinity, parenthood, marriage, race, and sexuality.