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Beginnings of the American Red Cross
A poster titled “Help Your American Red Cross,” ca. 1918.

A poster titled “Help Your American Red Cross,” ca. 1918.

Posters like this one were used to encourage people to become members of the American Red Cross (ARC) at the cost of one dollar per year. The depiction of an ARC nurse, an ARC ambulance, and a wounded soldier against the backdrop of an explosion, were designed to pack an emotional punch while asking for a minimal financial commitment from the American public.

This poster was distributed as part of a major fundraising campaign organized by the War Council of the American Red Cross and its chair Henry P. Davison with the goal of raising 100 million dollars. The War Council of the American Red Cross was an all-male group of bankers, industrialists, and community leaders charged with restructuring the American Red Cross (ARC) for wartime. Davison recruited a former Secretary of the Interior and men he considered to be the most talented US corporate leaders, including executives from Anaconda Copper, the American Tobacco Company, American Steel Foundries, the Guaranty Trust Company, AT&T, and American Express, to volunteer in critical organizational ARC posts.

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Citation Information
“Help your American Red Cross,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/2aadca904efb8cb8f669ad34389a3271.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Indianapolis Special Collections Room, Indianapolis Public Library and Indianapolis Marion County Public Library via Indiana Memory.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 5 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Beginnings of the American Red Cross

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A letter by Clara Barton, president of the American Red Cross, to May Wright Sewall, president of the National Council of Women, 1888.
An open letter to Clara Barton, president of the American Red Cross, from members of the Club Federico de la Torre, 1897.
A 1918 photograph of American Red Cross volunteers preparing surgical dressings.
An excerpt from “The American Red Cross: Organization and Activities,” an informational booklet published in 1917.
A poster titled “Help Your American Red Cross,” ca. 1918.
An American Red Cross fundraising poster, distributed during World War I, ca. 1917.
A 1918 photograph of members of the Toussaint L’Ouverture chapter of the American Red Cross, Savannah, Georgia.
An American Red Cross poster titled “In the Service of Those Who Suffer,” ca. 1919.
A bulletin issued by the War Council of the American Red Cross in 1918.
A 1919 American Red Cross press release about an award given to African American volunteer Rev. R. H. Windsor.
An excerpt from a 1919 report of the New Orleans Chapter of the American Red Cross.
A patriotic World War I poster for the American Red Cross, ca. 1920.
A 1923 memo from African American activist Walter F. White to W. E. B. Du Bois.
A 1979 interview with Susan Hicks about her work with the Red Cross in Charlotte, North Carolina during and after World War I.

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