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 While
Dunant's vision was spreading in Europe, civil war was raging in
the United States. Clara
Barton, a former schoolteacher and government worker who
came from a small farm in Massachusetts, went to the battlefield
to help care for the wounded.
After the Civil War, Barton went to Europe. She learned of
the Red Cross Movement and worked in relief efforts for
civilians during the Franco- Prussian War of 1870-71. Returning
home, she worked to persuade the U.S. government to sign the
Geneva Conventions. On May 21, 1881, with a group of friends,
Barton founded the American Association of the Red Cross. Later,
the first chapter was established in Dansville, New York. The
following year, the U.S. Senate ratified the Geneva Conventions,
allowing America to become the 32nd nation to support the
international treaty.
Barton's unique contribution to the worldwide Red Cross Movement
was organizing volunteers to help disaster victims. Her idea
became reality when Red Cross volunteers in New York shipped
food and clothing to victims of the Michigan forest fires in
1881. In 1882 and 1884, Barton organized and personally
supervised Red Cross relief efforts along the flooded Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. Red Cross volunteers fed, sheltered, and
gave medical care to the 25,000 victims of the 1889
Johnstown, Pennsylvania Flood.
In 1888, Clara Barton wondered, "with a mingled national
and personal sense of indignation, why our American Red Cross is
not as rich and great as in other nations?" Barton did not
limit her services to the United States. Under her leadership,
volunteers of the American Red Cross helped victims of the
Russian famine of 1892. In 1896, they helped ease, as Barton
described it, "the terrible sufferings" of Armenians
living in Turkish-controlled Armenia. During the
Spanish-American War of 1898, Barton, then 76 years old, went to
Cuba with her nurses to provide nursing care, medical supplies,
food, and other necessities to civilians and troops.
These American Red Cross efforts to relieve suffering did not go
unnoticed. In 1900, the U.S. Congress granted the American Red
Cross a charter, making the volunteer organization responsible
for providing services to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and
relief to disaster victims at home and abroad.
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- 1865 -
Civil War ends at Appomattox
- 1866 -
200 a day die in cholera epidemic.
- 1868 -
1st elevator installed in NY building.
- 1870 -
Franco-Prussian War is first test for International Red
Cross.
- 1876 -
Adventures of Tom Sawyer is published.
- 1881 -
Clara Barton establishes American Association of the Red
Cross.
- 1881 -
First Red Cross chapter founded in Dansville, NY.
- 1881 -
Red Cross assists victims of Michigan forest fires.
- 1889 -
Johnstown Flood.
- 1898 -
Spanish American War in Cuba.
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