The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness in the United States. ARC was established on May 21, 1881 by Clara Barton. Barton and her small group of women who wanted to help heal others physically and emotionally. Clara Barton and her group of determined, strong, and independent women created the American Red Cross Organization to help others and change many lives. Over the years they have grown to be a group with millions of members and supporters. They received their first charter of Congress in 1900, and a second in 1905. The most recent version of the charter was adopted in May 2007. Their legacy lives on and lives through other people to this day influencing others to make a change.
Clara Barton and these women went through many ups and downs during the first few years. Once they were established in 1881, they began building their clientele. Clara Barton campaigned for the American Red Cross and for ratification of the Geneva Convention protecting the injured soldiers and veterans, which the United States ratified in 1882. During Barton’s 23 years of leading Red Cross, she and her group conducted the first domestic and overseas disaster helping aid the United States military during the Spanish-American War. They worked for months trying to get everyone healthy again. In the article ‘Ambiguous Duty: Red Cross Nurses and the First World War’ written by Denis L. Alfin, he discussed the history and the background of the American Red Cross. The main point of this article was to discuss and describe what these people went through and all that they did for their country. He talked about how during the beginning of the war, the American Red Cross was a small group still trying to get in the grove of things by developing their identity and programs. However, when the United States declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917, the organization began to grow fast because their demand was high. By the time the war ended in 1918, the American Red Cross had become a major organization, that everyone grew to love and need. Another article that discussed post-war impacts, was ‘The American Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross Humanitarian Politics and Policies in Asia Minor and Greece’, - written by David Rodogno. He analyzed how post-war procedures and relief operations were unprecedented and but very informative. They learned new techniques that evolved overtime.
Throughout the years, the American Red Cross came across a number of obstacles. In the book ‘Nursing Rural America’, written by John Kirchgessner and Arlene W. Keeling, they describe each case, issue, and victory they experienced along the way. Their thesis was “these were years of great change and stress for the citizens of the United States who faced pervasive industrialization, the two world wars, the Great Depression, and migration and the American Red Cross was there the entire way”. In this book, they used pictures, letters, and paintings, showing the actuality and reality of the situations. Every choice that these women made were ‘life or death’ because they had lives at stake. Kirchgessner and Keeling further discuss the nursing in Navajo which is a particularly interesting subject. It discusses how Elizabeth Foster, a field nurse, was working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. She was stationed in Red Rock, Arizona on the Navajo reservation. The area consisted mostly of desert, trees, and rocks which made it hard to travel when there were high winds, sandstorms, and extreme heat. These nurses not only faced challenges coming from nature, but also cultural challenges. They struggled with incorporating health beliefs with cultural beliefs. In March 1936, nurse Gladys Solverson reported her difficulties by writing. She wrote “404 patients were visited and advised in their homes, 74 cases were seen at a Trading Post or schools. We traveled 2025 miles and 110 hours over good and bad roads, sometimes even no roads to reach patients”. Seeing Solverson write this about helping these people without any complaints says a lot about how determined they were, even if things got hard. People often wrote letters to Barton and her group in search for answers or information. These letters show how popular the Red Cross was and how easy they were to communicate with. One letter was specifically written in 1919 by Henry Davidson to Barton. In this letter, Henry asked for protection and help after the war. This letter was a great primary source due to the way he directly asked Clara for help knowing he would get it as soon as she received it.
Other problems that the Red Cross faced during this time was that people thought they were discriminating against gender, race, and ethnicity. Cristopher Groscurth wrote an article called ‘Paradoxes of Privilege and Participation: The Case of the American Red Cross’, which discussed these accusations. He took his time to research and analyze all the information on this case and prove it wrong. In 2005, they attempted to help with hurricane disaster relief but some people felt as if they were tending to other people more than others. Shortly after his research, he found that they helped certain people based on location. They made one stop and aided the people who were there then moved onto the next spot. After a few months, the air was cleared up and all the misunderstandings were gone.
Even though the Red Cross faced many trials on their journey, they did get a lot of recognition. Clara Barton in particular is a very important person when discussing the American Red Cross. She made a huge impact on America that will never go unrecognized. While trying to mobilize more than 20,000 and building over 54 hospitals overseas, the Red Cross provided a way for men, women, and children back home contribute to war relief. Getting everyone involved helped them grow even stronger. Some other groups that get people involved include the National Lifesaving Awards that are issued by American Red Cross headquarters in Washington, D.C. They give other people the opportunity to get recognition when they become a part of this organization. To this day people are joining the Red Cross Association and helping others, they will always be a group of people that we as Americans will need.
This group that started out so small with an intention to help others has made a huge impact on the United States. Clara Barton and her group of determined, strong, and independent women created the American Red Cross Organization to help others and change many lives, which is exactly what they did. Over the years, they have grown to be a group with millions of members and supporters. In 1900 they received the first congressional charter, along with a second one in 1905. Clara Barton will always be known for creating such a remarkable organization. Her legacy, along with the American Red Cross, will live on and live through other people to this day, continuing to influence others to make a change and help the community.
References
John Kirchgessner PhD, RN. Nursing Rural America: Perspectives from the Early 20th Century. Springer Publishing Company, 2014.
Alfin, Denis L. “Ambiguous Duty: Red Cross Nurses and the First World War”. U.S. Army Medical Department Journal, January 2018, 99–105.
Groscurth, Christopher R. “Paradoxes of Privilege and Participation: The Case of the American Red Cross”. Communication Quarterly 59, no. 3, (July 2011), 296–314.
Rodogno, Davide. “The American Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross. Humanitarian Politics and Policies in Asia Minor and Greece (1922–1923)”. First World War Studies 5, no. 1 (January 2014): 83–99.
Barton, Clara, “Letter from Clara Barton to May Wright Sewall”. Digital Public Library of America, 1888.
Clara Barton, The Red Cross. Washington, D.C.: American National Red Cross, 1898.
Henry P. Davison, A Letter for the American Red Cross in the Great War. New York: Macmillan, 1919.