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The 1940s in America

Red Cross

by Michele Goostree

Identification International relief organization

Also Known As American Red Cross

Date Established on May 21, 1881

World War I was a turning point in the development of new technology with which to wage war. As a result, the American Red Cross saw a need for advanced medical preparedness to save as many lives as possible in wartime. The Red Cross established a national nursing program that trained volunteers to handle basic health care needs, accident prevention, and disease control. This preparedness would be put to the test during World War II.

Founded in 1881, the American Red Cross began with one woman’s ability to envision the need to help people during times of war or disaster. What began as a simple source of supplies for soldiers who desperately needed food, clothing, bedding, and the most basic sanitary items became an intense relief effort on the deadliest battlefields during the Civil War. Nurse Clara Barton risked her life on the frontlines to bring supplies, first aid, comfort, and hope to soldiers on both sides of the conflict. These experiences, coupled with a European trip to view the International Committee of the Red Cross, which had been founded in 1863 by the Swiss Jean-Henri Dunant, prompted Barton to devote the rest of her life to founding and building the American Red Cross. Since its inception, the organization has focused on providing voluntary humanitarian aid during both wartime and peacetime to citizens in the United States and abroad.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt helping to kick off a $50-million fundraising drive for the American Red Cross on December 12, 1941—five days after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and drew the United States into World War II.

ph_1940-Red_Cross.jpg

(Library of Congress)

Background Information

During its initial years, the Red Cross aided citizens in a variety of ways in the United States. Devastating floods along the Mississippi River in 1884 and in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 1889, as well as the deadly hurricane in Galveston, Texas, in 1900, prompted the organization to not only supply food, clothing, and shelter to displaced citizens but also to assist residents in the rebuilding process, which ranged from physically reconstructing buildings to distributing seeds and starter plants to jumpstart the devastated agricultural economy.

The Red Cross became known as an organization whose volunteers were quick to respond to fires, floods, and famines. This reputation was challenged during the Spanish-American War in 1898, when the organization discovered it was not adequately prepared to assist troops in a conflict fought on foreign soil. Despite criticism from President William McKinley and Rough Rider leader Theodore Roosevelt, the Red Cross still managed to provide nurses, doctors, and food to help soldiers and refugees who would otherwise have been deprived of support. Despite his criticism, McKinley publicly supported the Red Cross, praising its high standards that justified “the confidence and support” of the American people. The lessons learned during the Spanish-American War proved to be invaluable for the organization.

Red Cross Nurses in World War II

Before World War I, the Red Cross focused on providing disaster relief, first aid, water safety instruction, and public health nursing programs throughout the United States. The public health nursing programs, which focused on safety training, accident prevention, home care for the sick, and nutrition education, became a catalyst for Red Cross nursing recruitment on campuses nationwide after World War I. The organization’s training in basic health management played an integral role in cutting mortality rates in World War II. More sophisticated weapons meant increased casualties of both soldiers and civilians. The Red Cross’s understanding of how to manage or prevent communicable diseases and wound infections significantly cut the number of fatalities in hospital wards and on the battlefields.

Coordination and communication became the keys to success for nurses during World War II. Many were cross-trained and served in a variety of capacities with the Red Cross and the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. When the war ended in 1945, 100,000 nurses had volunteered, 76,000 of whom had served in the corps. Nurses were given officer rank, which meant that they carried the respect of these titles but not the pay that their male counterparts received. These nurses also received illness and accident benefits and protection under the terms of the Soldiers and Sailors Relief Act of 1940.

The experiences of these nurses varied depending on the theater in which they served. Some followed invading troops in Africa, others landed under fire at Anzio, while others rode onto the beachheads of Normandy days after the invasion. Nurses stationed in the Pacific theater often faced the same fates as soldiers when the Japanese overcame American forces or marched prisoners to death camps.

In addition to serving on the frontlines, American Red Cross nurses and volunteers worked tirelessly on the home front directing people of all ages to assist with scrap collections and the preparation and shipment of food packages to approximately 115,000 American prisoners of war (POWs) and more than 1.3 million Allied POWs in Europe and the Pacific. As a result of these efforts, 1.4 million packages each month were processed and distributed by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

American Red Cross, 1946-1950

Following World War II, the Red Cross struggled with the question of what to do with the tens of thousands of women who volunteered their lives to serve in the Red Cross Nursing Service, as well as the Army and Navy Nurse Corps. With the exception of those who decided to spend the remainder of their career as nurses for the army or navy, the Red Cross decided to form a reserve of nurses to be called upon for the provision of home health education and disaster services. The organization’s goal was to “carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for prevention of the same.”

Perhaps the most well-known legacy of the period from the end of World War II to the beginning of the Korean War was the Red Cross’s introduction of a nationwide civilian blood program. The Red Cross began organizing and sponsoring blood drives during World War II for the sole purpose of shipping blood to international hospitals for soldiers’ use. These blood collection and storage procedures continued after the war, and in the twenty-first century the American Red Cross supplied nearly 50 percent of all blood and blood products in the United States.

Impact

The restructuring of nursing by the American Red Cross in the years leading up to World War II helped make its team of doctors, nurses, and surgical assistants a crucial force during combat. Many old prejudices about the need for one nurse for each patient were abandoned, and nurses were given the opportunity to become part of a stratified medical team both at home and abroad during the war. This managerial style of health care would be used again in 1950 to assist soldiers and civilians during the Korean War.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Goostree, Michele. "Red Cross." The 1940s in America, edited by Thomas Tandy Lewis, Salem Press, 2010. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=1940_149040701490.

APA 7th

Goostree, M. (2010). Red Cross. In T. T. Lewis (Ed.), The 1940s in America. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Goostree, Michele. "Red Cross." Edited by Thomas Tandy Lewis. The 1940s in America. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2010. Accessed December 14, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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