Irving Haberman, [Veteran Frank Raft selling poppies, New York], 1941 (2013.6.6)
Ernst Haas, Poppies, New York, 1984 (2008.29.7)
Lisa Larsen, A ready purse, which he reveals as he peels off a bill to buy a poppy from a Veteran’s of Foreign Wars auxiliary member, 1950 (2008.4.5)
Although the wearing of poppies is traditionally done on Memorial Day, it is often seen on Veterans Day as well as a way to pay respect to those who died in war. The symbolic reference of the flower comes from the poem In Flanders Field, written in 1915. In it Colonel John McCrae describes the sadness of rows of crosses with flowering poppies in between, blowing in the wind. Several years after the publication of the poem, the poppy became known as the “Flower of Remembrance”. During Veterans Day and Memorial Day veterans organization in the United States distribute poppies in honor of all those who died in the war.
