Portrait photo of Thanksgiving Day lesson at Whittier

In the United States Thanksgiving is observed on the fourth Thursday in November. In Canada - on the second Monday of October. The tradition of Thanksgiving started with the Pilgrims who settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. They first held a celebration of their harvest in 1621. The first national Thanksgiving Day was proclaimed by President George Washington in 1789. It became a holiday in 1863 when Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday in November should be celebrated as Thanksgiving. Since then it has been celebrated every year and is an official federal holiday that was moved to the fourth Thursday of November in 1941 by President Franklin Roosevelt. Many cities have large parades on Thanksgiving Day. Perhaps the largest and most famous parade is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Another popular way to spend the day is watching NFL football. The traditional food for the Thanksgiving meal includes a turkey, cranberry sauce, potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, vegetables, and pumpkin pie. Each year a live turkey is presented to the President of the United States who then "pardons" the turkey and it gets to live out its life on a farm.

Frances Benjamin Johnston (1864-1952) was an American photographer who is best known for her pioneering work in the field of architectural and landscape photography. She was born in Grafton, West Virginia, and after studying art and photography in Paris, she returned to the United States and established herself as a successful photographer. Johnston's work focused primarily on architecture, and she photographed many of the most significant buildings and structures of her time. She also photographed landscapes, gardens, and people, and her work often appeared in magazines such as House Beautiful, Ladies' Home Journal, and Country Life. One of Johnston's most notable projects was her documentation of historic architecture in the American South. In 1933, she was commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation to photograph historic homes and buildings in Virginia, Maryland, and North Carolina. This work resulted in a series of photographs that are now housed in the Library of Congress. Throughout her career, Johnston was also an advocate for women in photography, and she worked to promote the work of other women photographers. She was a founding member of the Women's Professional Photographers' Association and the Photo-Secession, a group of photographers who sought to elevate photography as an art form.