US History

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Women

This collection uses primary sources to explore the early history of the American Red Cross.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Early American Red Cross

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. 

Resources

1. [Our History](http://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history), American Red Cross. 
2. [American Nurses in World War I](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/the-great-war-american-nurses-world-war-1/), PBS.  
3. [Clara Barton](https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/clara-barton), National Women’s History Museum. 
4. [Clara Barton Birthplace Museum](http://www.clarabartonbirthplace.org/). 

Overview

The American Red Cross (officially named The American National Red Cross) was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, an American humanitarian and civil rights activist. Barton modeled the American Red Cross (ARC) after the International Red Cross, based in Geneva, Switzerland, which she encountered while volunteering in Europe during the late 1800s. She envisioned an organization that would provide humanitarian aid during wartime and in the event of national calamities.
 
Barton served as the organization’s president from 1881 to 1904. Under her leadership, the American Red Cross provided relief and support during the 1887 yellow fever epidemic in Florida, an 1889 flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the Spanish-American War, and the 1900 flood in Galveston, Texas. The ARC also sent aid and supplies during the 1891 Russian Famine and the South African War (1899-1902). During the early twentieth century, the Red Cross formalized a national network for recruitment and training of professional nurses, primarily women, for emergency preparedness and wartime service. Upon the United States’ entry into World War I, President Woodrow Wilson appointed a War Council to run the ARC. In 1914, the first 138 ARC nurses sailed to Europe on the SS Red Cross (also called the “Mercy Ship”) to work in war zones in France, England, Germany, Austria, and Hungary. 

During World War I, the ARC also ran an aggressive enrollment campaign, and by the summer of 1918, the ARC boasted 9,000 nurses, with plans to recruit at least 40,000 more. This set uses photographs, letters, posters, and publications to explore the beginnings of the American Red Cross under the initial leadership of Clara Barton, its shift away from neutrality and civil rights during wartime, and its impact on the establishment of a female workforce in the United States.

English

Beginnings of the American Red Cross

american-red-cross_08_fccad01ec570d49af2bf7a3a80555d1e.jpg

Courtesy of Watertown Free Public Library via Digital Commonwealth. 

American National Red Cross, “American Red Cross In the service of those who suffer,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/fccad01ec570d49af2bf7a3a80555d1e.

American Red Cross 'In the service of those who suffer'

Digital Commonwealth

Watertown Free Public Library

Before the official involvement of the US in World War I, most American Red Cross (ARC) posters included depictions of nurses to encourage the public to donate to the war effort in Europe. The nurse figure in early posters was typically not very feminine; she represented both the neutrality of the US and the Red Cross. However, after the US entered the war, the US Division of Pictorial Publicity (DPP) took over ARC poster production. The DPP used a more feminized nurse to catch attention and raise money. 

An American Red Cross poster titled “In the Service of Those Who Suffer,” ca. 1919.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 8 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Beginnings of the American Red Cross