Moina Michaels is credited with creating the idea of wearing red poppies to honor veterans who died in service to their country. She was inspired by and responded to John McCrae's poem "In Flanders Fields." In 1915 she wrote her own poem about poppies.
"We cherish too the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led.
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies."
In 1948 the United Post Office honored Moina Michaels for her role in founding the National Poppy movement. Today artificial poppies are manufactured by disabled veterans and worn as a symbol of respect and remembrance for our honored war dead.
"Vase with Red Poppies" by Vincent Van Gogh (1866)