Bassett, Queens and Sensibility.

Thanksgiving has been an official holiday since the days of George Washington, who, in 1789, issued the first proclamation of Thanksgiving to honor the new national constitution. During the early 19th century, numerous states began to observe Thanksgiving on their own, setting different dates state by state. In the 1860s, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, mounted a vigorous campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day to be on the same date each year, coast to coast. ( Leave it to a woman for sense and sensibilities.) This gained presidential attention, and subsequently, on October 3 of 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a National Day of Thanksgiving. We celebrated the official holiday together as a nation on November 26, 1863. For the next seventy years, each U.S. President issued his own proclamation confirming the date. Then, in 1939, finally Franklin D. Roosevelt re-set the day as November’s third Thursday. And then in 1941, a resolution was made to change it to the fourth Thursday of November. It has remained that day ever since. Interestingly, Godey's Lady's Book, alternatively known as Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book, was an American women's magazine that was published right here in Philadelphia from 1830 to 1878. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civil War. The numbers were impressive as its circulation rose from 70,000 in the 1840s to 150,000 in 1860. In the 1860s Godey's considered itself the "queen of monthlies". Perhaps a bit less interesting but still of importance, it you plan on re decorating your Dining Room in time for Thanksgiving, 2023, and assuming that the date won't change you have one week to visit us and place your order. Jim Clarey JPClarey@BassettFurniture.Com 610-337-1249.