Red Poppies From Veterans Of Foreign Wars

Poppies have long been a symbol for the veterans of foreign wars, it began after the December 1915 publication of In Flanders Fields. Two women were impacted by this poem written by World War I Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae who was a surgeon in Canada's First Brigade Artillery.

The women were Anna E. Guerin of France and Moina Michael from Georgia who both worked to initiate the sales of artificial poppies. These poppies were to be sold to benefits the friends and other people that were left destitute by the war. In 1920 Guerin convinced the American legion to hold the first poppy sale in the United States. At this time the poppy was known as a flower of remembrance in many of the Allied countries including the United States, Australian, Britain, France, Canada and New Zealand.

The 1920 sale of the flowers benefited the American and French children's league, in 1922 the two women attended a conference in New York at the YMCA this is when the flower became known as being the symbol of remember for the war. The women approached the veterans of foreign wars and asked for their assistance in making the poppy the flower of remembrance. In August of 1922 veterans of foreign wars adopted the poppy as their official memorial flower and they held the first nationwide sale of the poppy.

In 1923 there was a shortage of fresh poppies at the florist, because of this setback the artificial poppy came into existence being made by unemployed and disabled veterans. After this was approved the first poppy factory was built in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and these poppies are still made and sold today.