In my paper, \u201cIn the Name of Mercy: The Legacy the American Red Cross on\u00a0Gender and War,\u201d I would like to examine how historians have conceptualized and viewed the significance of the American Red Cross and its impact on gender and war since its establishment in 1881 and first major humanitarian relief effort during the Johnstown Flood of 1889 to its transformation as a\u00a0major national humanitarian organization\u00a0in\u00a0the First World War. Not only did the\u00a0American Red Cross experienced phenomenal growth during the Great War but it\u00a0also implemented various nursing programs including the development of first aid, water safety, and organized public health campaigns in order to alleviate the pain and suffering of soldiers and civilians during the war. The idea that the American Red Cross were \u201cchampions of charity\u201d but also \u201centhusiastic promoters of militarism and sacrifice in times of war\u201d intrigued me when I came across John Hutchinson\u2019s Champions Of Charity: War And The Rise Of The Red Cross.<\/em>\u00a0I would like to explore what other historians have written about this subject matter\u00a0in the field and how they have\u00a0come to view the American Red Cross over time.<\/p>\n

From its humble beginnings as one of the many small organizations\u00a0that took part in international Red Cross movement, the Johnstown Flood of 1889 played a pivotal role in the history of the American Red Cross and even helped establish the organization as the<\/em> major disaster relief agency in the United States. Despite its initial goal of providing relief for peacetime disasters, the American Red Cross would eventually provide wartime services as well as\u00a0international relief efforts in the years that followed. Mostly in part due to the voice and efforts of Clara Barton, the founder and \u201cchampion\u201d of the\u00a0organization, Barton played an important role in both the history and legacy of the American Red Cross when it came to protecting the war-injured and\u00a0providing disaster relief efforts both at home and abroad. Her experiences in Europe, especially after becoming influenced by Henry Dunant, would come to lay the foundation and framework for the American Red Cross to provide national and international relief efforts during World War I.<\/p>\n

In order to trace how historians have approached this topic, I would need to address a couple of questions:<\/p>\n

\n
1. How have historians viewed the growth and development of the American Red Cross since its early establishment in 1881 to its dramatic transformation as a massive and influential institution by the end of the First World War?<\/li>\n
2. Despite its success and significance as a major humanitarian relief organization throughout the Great War, was the American Red Cross (in some ways) an instigator of war through its recruitment process and propaganda?<\/li>\n
3. How did\u00a0gender and the roles of women play a fundamental role in the American Red Cross in terms of reconstructing gender identities on the battlefields and during wartime\u00a0in the First World War?<\/li>\n
4. How have women fashioned new identities for themselves due to increasing\u00a0employment opportunities that emerged during wartime? What happened\u00a0to them\u00a0when they were forced to\u00a0return to the traditional standards of femininity after the war and during the postwar era?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   As for\u00a0potential primary sources, I will be looking at\u00a0first-hand accounts of the experiences of the\u00a0female medical personnel who served abroad during the First World War. These may include, diaries, letters, biographies and personal memoirs, photographs, as well as membership data on\u00a0the number of American women who volunteered in\u00a0the war and possibly a summary of the Red Cross’\u00a0financial operations during the war.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   In my paper, \u201cIn the Name of Mercy: The Legacy the American Red Cross on\u00a0Gender and War,\u201d I would like to examine how historians have conceptualized and viewed the significance of the American Red Cross and its impact on gender and war since its establishment in 1881 and first major humanitarian relief effort during the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349\/revisions\/401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.shroutdocs.org\/hist571-fall2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}