The American Red Cross was formed 137 years ago, on May 21st, 1881, by hospital nurse Clara Barton! Nicknamed the “Angel of The Battlefield”, Clara would go out on the battlefield to deliver supplies and aide during the American Civil War. During her 90-year lifetime, she met and communicated regularly with Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass and became an activist for the women's suffrage movement and for civil rights.
Since 1898, the United States military and the Red Cross have worked together. Clara Barton led a group of nurses to care for American soldiers on the battlefields of the Spanish-American War. That partnership continued and translated over to WWI, and then to WWII.
In World War Two, Overseas, Red Cross workers were attached to military hospitals, hospital ships and hospital trains. At home, millions of Red Cross volunteers provided comfort and aid to members of the armed forces and their families, served in hospitals suffering from severe shortages of medical staff and produced emergency supplies for war victims.
The Red Cross shipped over 300,000 tons of supplies overseas.
The Red Cross prepared 27 million packages for American and other Allied prisoners of war.
Many veterans tell of the Red Cross serving donuts or coffee for a price, but there is an often unknown part of the story. The refreshments were originally totally free, as are all of Red Cross services. It turns out the British troops were being charged for their snacks already, so the U.S. Secretary of War asked the Red Cross to start charging only at stationary Red Cross clubs to help even the tables. Even though the mobile units, called clubmobiles, were supposed to deliver free refreshments to troops in the fields and close to the front lines, the story has now taken on a life of its own.
Just curious where you got the photo from of the lady holding the rag? That is Dorothy Stout of Vicksburg, Mississippi. She was in Clubmobile Group D.