Red Cross History
Download this entry as a PDF file.
Visionary leaders change the world. In the late 1850s, half a world away, Swiss entrepreneur Henry Dunant had a vision. His was a radical, but inspirational, proposal: to train volunteers to respond to disasters and emergencies, helping the afflicted without discrimination and crossing borders when needed. His relief efforts led to the founding of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement in 1864. His vision later became Clara Barton's life's work in America.
Clara Barton and a circle of acquaintances founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 1881. Barton first heard of the Swiss-inspired International Red Cross Movement while visiting Europe following the Civil War. Returning home, she campaigned for an American Red Cross society and for ratification of the Geneva Convention protecting the war-injured, which the United States ratified in 1882.
Barton headed the Red Cross for 23 years, during which time it conducted its first domestic and overseas disaster relief efforts, aided the United States military during the Spanish-American War, and campaigned successfully for the inclusion of peacetime relief work as part of the International Red Cross Movement.
The Red Cross received its first congressional charter in 1900 and a second in 1905, the year after Barton resigned from the organization. This charter set forth the purpose of the organization that includes giving relief to and serving as a medium of communication between members of the American armed forces and their families and providing national and international disaster relief and mitigation.
Prior to the First World War, the Red Cross introduced its first aid, water safety and public health nursing programs. With the outbreak of war, the organization experienced phenomenal growth. The number of local chapters jumped from 107 in 1914 to 3,864 in 1918 and membership grew from 17,000 to more than 20 million adult and 11 million Junior Red Cross members. The public contributed $400 million in funds and material to support Red Cross programs, including those for American and Allied forces and civilian refugees. The Red Cross staffed hospitals and ambulance companies and recruited 20,000 registered nurses to serve the military. Additional Red Cross nurses came forward to combat the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.
After the war, the Red Cross focused on service to veterans and enhanced its programs in safety training, accident prevention, home care for the sick and nutrition education. It also provided relief for victims of major disasters such as the Mississippi River floods in 1927 and severe drought and the Depression during the 1930s.
The Second World War called upon the Red Cross to provide extensive services once again to the U.S. military, Allies and civilian war victims. It enrolled more than 104,000 nurses for military service, prepared 27 million packages for American and Allied prisoners of war, and shipped more than 300,000 tons of supplies overseas. At the military's request, the Red Cross also initiated a national blood program that collected 13.3 million pints of blood for use by the armed forces.
After World War II, the Red Cross introduced the first nationwide civilian blood program that now supplies more than 40 percent of the blood and blood products in this country. During the 1990s, the Red Cross engineered a massive modernization of its blood services operations to improve the safety of its blood products.
The Red Cross continued to provide services to members of the armed forces and their families, including during the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf wars. The Red Cross also expanded its services into such fields as civil defense, CPR/Automated External Defibrillator training, HIV/AIDS education and the provision of emotional care and support to disaster victims and their survivors. It helped the federal government form the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and serves as its principal supplier of mass care in federally declared disasters.
While closely associated with the federal government in the promotion of its objectives, the Red Cross is an independent, volunteer-led organization, financially supported by voluntary public contributions and costreimbursement charges. An all volunteer Board of Governors leads the organization. The president of the United States is honorary chairman of the Red Cross.