Conclusion

After the war, nursing grew into a more professional occupation as more and more schools and training programs opened to train nurses. The Red Cross continued its work following Armistice, dispatching nurses to care for prisoners of war (these dispatches included African American nurses, whose service largely went unrecognized). It continued to raise funds and expand to have a greater presence in the following wars of the twentieth century.

The legacy of the Red Cross lay in its contributions to nursing from the very beginning. During and after the war, it aided in the formalization of training nurses, became a leading teacher of Public Health and continued its activities in Connecticut to the present day. It’s fundraising activities during wartime relied on the idealization of the nursing profession, drawing on gender roles and patriarchal ideals of patriotism and motherhood as a fundraising tool that ultimately proved effective.