June 16 is Father’s Day.  The idea of a day on which to honor one’s father and fathers in general was first proposed by Sonora Smart Dodd in Spokane, Washington in 1910.  Periodically, others also suggested this parallel to Mother’s Day.  By the 1930s, people regularly celebrated it on the third Sunday in June but it didn’t become an official holiday until 1972.

Here are some photographs from the Museum’s collection that highlight the role of fathers.