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The American Red Cross has often been at the frontier of American history. It was one of the first organizations to lead national campaigns for the relief of disaster victims. It was the first and continues to be the official provider of communications and other services to the United States armed forces. It has been on the forefront of advances in nursing care and public health, blood and tissue collection and distribution, and first aid and health and safety training. It has also played a leadership role in the organization of other national Red Cross societies and in providing assistance to the victims of natural disasters and armed conflict around the world.
Here is an outline of some of the areas in which the American Red Cross has been a pioneer, followed by suggestions for further research on Red Cross topics.
Clara Barton
Founder of the American Red Cross, Barton was famous for breaking down frontiers all through her life. As a young woman she became a teacher at a time when males dominated the field. She was among the first women to gain employment in the federal government by becoming a copyist in the United States Patent Office. During the Civil War she became nationally known as the "Angel of the Battlefields" when she risked her life to bring supplies and support to soldiers in the field. After a trip to Europe where she first learned about the International Red Cross Movement, she returned home and began a successful campaign for U.S. ratification of the Geneva Convention of 1864 (calling for the protection of the war-injured). In 1881, at the age of 60, she created the American Association of the Red Cross (as today's American Red Cross was first known) and led the organization for 23 years. During the time she was in charge, the American Red Cross conducted its first domestic and overseas disaster relief efforts, aided the United States military during the Spanish-American War (1898), and campaigned successfully for the inclusion of peacetime relief work as part of the mission of Red Cross societies (the so-called American Amendment that some Europeans initially resisted).
Disaster Relief
Although not entirely alone, the Red Cross was one of the very first organizations to mount national campaigns for the relief of victims of natural disasters. Within months of forming the Red Cross, Clara Barton dispatched an agent with relief supplies to the scene of devastating forest fires in Michigan. Barton herself led the relief effort during the great Ohio and Mississippi river flood of 1884, renting river steamers to deliver supplies to victims along the banks. In 1892, the Red Cross undertook its first overseas disaster relief effort by sending corn donated by Iowa farmers to the victims of famine in Russia. Barton and her agents effectively used newspapers, speaking engagements, and political pressure to rally support for their relief activities. Ever since Barton's day, the American Red Cross has been at the forefront in responding to the needs of disaster victims and in designing the best strategies to prevent disasters before they occur. In recent years, the Red Cross helped the federal government form the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which coordinates the government's response to presidentially declared disasters. In 1997, the government named the Red Cross as the nonprofit organization with primary responsibility for coordinating emotional care and support of families of passengers in aviation accidents.
First Aid, Health and Safety, Water Safety/Lifesaving
In 1909, the Red Cross introduced its First Aid training services under the leadership of two pioneers in the new field of industrial safety, Major Charles Lynch and Dr. M. J. Shields. The next year the Pullman Company donated the first railroad car used to teach first aid. Equipped as a classroom with living quarters for the staff, it traveled all around the country giving lessons in first aid and health and safety to civic and industrial groups. In 1914, the Red Cross introduced Water Safety (lifesaving) under the dedicated and sometimes dramatic guidance of Commodore Wilbert Longfellow, known affectionately as the "Amiable Whale." Throughout the years, the Red Cross has expanded into many new fields, such as water craft safety, civil defense, CPR training, HIV/AIDS education, and more recently into such areas as babysitter training and pet first aid.
Blood and Biomedical Services
Red Cross units began experimenting with local blood collection and distribution in the 1930s. In 1940, the national organization committed itself to participating in the "Plasma for Britain" program whereby liquid plasma was sent to Great Britain to help military and civilian casualties. In 1942, the Red Cross began its own World War II blood program centered around its 35 largest chapters. These Army-Navy Blood Donor Centers contained labs and facilities for all types of blood procurement and handling, including the newly developed process for obtaining dried plasma that proved critical for sustaining the lives of the injured. The renowned African-American scientist and teacher, Dr. Charles R. Drew, led much of the medical research that made the processing of blood plasma possible and safe. After the war, the Red Cross initiated the first civilian blood banking program that became nationwide and now supplies nearly 50-percent of the blood and blood products in this country. In 1956, the Red Cross established a laboratory at its national headquarters to evaluate technical equipment and supplies used in the blood program. This lab was gradually expanded into a full-scale research and development facility (now called the Holland Laboratory) that has played a leadership role in developing cutting-edge medical products, such as the fibrin sealant bandage that is capable of stopping bleeding almost immediately. In 1982, Red Cross established its Tissue Services for banking and distribution of human tissue used in a growing range of medical procedures.
Nursing
The first Red Cross nursing activity took place in 1888 when the organization recruited nurses to combat a severe yellow fever outbreak in Florida. In 1898, the Red Cross recruited 700 nurses to provide medical assistance to the U.S. Army and civilian casualties in Cuba and the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. In 1909, the Red Cross created its first nursing division, called the "Red Cross Nursing Service," and appointed a strong-willed visionary, Jane Delano, as its director. She initiated educational programs in home nursing and first aid for homemakers and created a Rural Nursing Service for medically underserved populations in remote areas. This service was later expanded to include city dwellers and became known in 1913 as the "Town and Country Nursing Program." In 1918, the name was changed to the "Bureau of Public Health Nursing," indicative of the leadership role Jane Delano and the Red Cross played in establishing public health care in this country. In World War I the Red Cross recruited over 23,000 nurses to serve within its own ranks and with the U.S. military at home and overseas. In World War II, the military role of Red Cross nursing was limited to the recruitment of nurses for the Army and Navy Nursing Corps although many Red Cross nurses served with those Corps as well as at veterans and civilian hospitals at home. Red Cross nurses have also made major contributions to public health during major epidemics, such as the influenza outbreak during World War I and the polio epidemic of the 1950s.
Service to the Military
The American Red Cross was one of the first organizations to respond to the needs of the U.S. military in combat. This occurred during the Spanish-American War when Clara Barton and her national organization, along with local Red Cross societies, provided aid to soldiers in the field, in military camps, and in transit around the country. In 1900 and again in 1905, the United States Congress issued charters to the American Red Cross which required that the organization "furnish volunteer aid to the sick and wounded of armies in time of war" and to act "as a medium of communication between the people of the United States . . . and their armies . . ." The Red Cross met these obligations with a massive buildup of chapters, volunteers, and services at home and abroad during World War I and provided similar support during World War II. It also provided services to the military during the Korean, Vietnam, and Gulf wars. During peacetime, the Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services (AFES) continues today the tradition of providing services to U.S. forces and their families wherever they are deployed or stationed .
International Services
The Red Cross has always been a leader in reaching out to help people in other lands. This began in the 1890s with the Red Cross shipment of corn to Russia and was followed in 1896 by Clara Barton herself leading a team to the Middle East to provide relief to Armenians suffering under Turkish domination. At various times ever since, the Red Cross has sent aid to victims of floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. It has also been very active in providing assistance to the civilian victims of armed conflict during and after wars and outbreaks of civil unrest. Immediately following World War I, Henry P. Davison, who had served as chairman of the War Council that ran the American Red Cross during wartime, led the movement to create an organization of all the individual national societies of the Red Cross. Known as the League of Red Cross Societies (now the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies), it has served to mobilize and coordinate many of the activities the societies undertake with one another. For many years, the American Red Cross has operated an International Services unit with the objectives of tracing relatives separated during disasters or wars, educating the public about international humanitarian law, and responding with various kinds of aid to appeals for assistance during armed conflicts and international disasters. In 1990, the Red Cross opened its Holocaust and War Victims Tracing and Information Center. It works in concert with local Chapters, other national societies, and with the International Committee of the Red Cross as a clearing house for inquiries made by people separated from family and friends during the Nazi occupation of Europe and the former Soviet Union during World War II.
Resources
Here are suggestions for getting you started on your research. Some of the texts listed below are out of print but available in libraries.
General histories of the American Red Cross
Foster Rhea Dulles, The American Red Cross: A History. NY: Harper and Brothers, 1950.
Patrick Gilbo, The American Red Cross, in the Know Your Government series. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.
Patrick F. Gilbo, The American Red Cross: The First Century. NY: Harper and Row, 1981.
Charles Hurd, The Compact History of the American Red Cross. NY: Hawthorn Books, 1959.
Books by and about Clara Barton
Clara Barton, The Red Cross. Washington, D.C.: American National Red Cross, 1898.
Elizabeth Brown Pryor, Clara Barton: Professional Angel. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987.
Marshall W. Fishwick and the Editors of Silver Burdett, Illustrious Americans: Clara Barton.
Morristown, N.J.: Silver Burdett Company, 1966.
Other Books
Ernest P. Bicknell, Pioneering with the Red Cross. New York: Macmillan, 1935.
Mabel T. Boardman, Under the Red Cross Flag: At Home and Abroad. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1915.
J. Henry Dunant, A Memory of Solferino. Washington, D.C.: The American National Red Cross, 1939.
Daphne A. Reid and Patrick F. Gilbo, Beyond Conflict: The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1919-1994. Geneva, Switzerland: International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 1997.
Red Cross Websites
Libraries and Archives
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