Famous Mothers
Mothers in the Movies
Mothers in Literature
Mother’s Day & Traditions
Animal Mothers
100
This civil rights icon was the mother of four and became known as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Rosa Parks
100
In this Disney film, Marlin searches the ocean for his son with help from Dory, though the missing parent is his mother.
Finding Nemo
100
In Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, the March sisters call their wise and loving mother by this nickname.
Marmee
100
In the United States, Mother’s Day is celebrated on this day of May.
The second Sunday in May
100
This marsupial mother carries her joey in a pouch.
Kangaroo
200
This Austrian-born queen of France was mother to several children, including Louis XVII.
Marie Antoinette
200
In this 1983 film, Shirley MacLaine plays Aurora Greenway, a strong-willed mother whose relationship with her daughter anchors the story.
Terms of Endearment
200
In Hamlet, this queen is Hamlet’s mother and the new wife of Claudius.
Gertrude
200
This woman is widely credited with founding the modern American Mother’s Day in the early 20th century.
Anna Jarvis
200
This large marine mammal is famous for long migrations and strong bonds between mothers and calves.
Whale
300
This physicist and chemist raised two daughters, one of whom, Irène, also won a Nobel Prize.
Marie Curie
300
In this 2009 animated film, a mother named Coraline’s “Other Mother” is far more sinister than she first appears.
Coraline
300
In Harry Potter, this mother’s sacrifice protects Harry from Voldemort as an infant.
Lily Potter
300
Ironically, Anna Jarvis later opposed this aspect of Mother’s Day because she felt it had become too commercial.
Commercialization
300
This bird species is known for males incubating the egg while the mother returns to sea to feed.
Emperor penguin
400
This former First Lady was the mother of George W. Bush and Jeb Bush.
Barbara Bush
400
In this 1960 Hitchcock film, the memory of Norman Bates’s mother looms terrifyingly over the story.
Psycho
400
In The Grapes of Wrath, this matriarch holds the Joad family together during the Dust Bowl migration.
Ma Joad
400
In the United Kingdom, Mothering Sunday is traditionally observed during this Christian season.
Lent
400
This African mammal lives in matriarchal herds led by an older female.
Elephant
500
This mother of Alexander the Great was a powerful Molossian princess and queen of Macedon.
Olympias
500
In this 2017 film, Frances McDormand plays a grieving mother who rents billboards to demand justice for her daughter.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
500
In Greek tragedy, this mother kills her children after being betrayed by Jason.
Medea
500
This flower became strongly associated with Mother’s Day through Anna Jarvis and was often worn to honor mothers.
Carnation
500
This cephalopod mother guards her eggs for months, often refusing food until they hatch.
Octopus
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