The Origins of the Red Cross: National Organization

Any history of the American Red Cross begins with Clara Barton. Born in Massachusetts, Clarissa Harlowe Barton was a former schoolteacher and clerk in Washington DC when the American Civil War broke out. Driven by humanitarianism and a desire to serve her country, Barton nursed and comforted the wounded, organized supplies, and traveled throughout the battlefields of the Civil War, earning the moniker “The Angel of the Battlefield.” While in Europe following the war, Ms. Barton became familiar with the International Red Cross, the network founded by Henri Dunant, a Swiss activist and businessman.  Upon returning to the United States, Barton and a circle of her acquaintances established the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881.

Clara Barton led the organization for its first 23 years, during which time the Red Cross provided disaster aid relief, earned its first congressional charter in 1900, and aided the US military during the Civil War. During this period, the United States entered the progressive era, in which ideas about humanitarianism and charity organizations shifted and many in the Red Cross grew frustrated by Barton’s egotistical leadership style. Factions emerged in the organization, one led by Mabel Boardman.

Mabel Thorp Boardman was the daughter of a wealthy banker and she was brought in to reorganize the Red Cross to better reflect its mission and the progressive values in the era.  Boardman was part of a financial committee appointed to oversee the financial organization of the Red Cross and later a reorganization of the entire organization itself, beginning with the removal of Clara Barton as its head. After a financial scandal in which Boardman and her supporters accused her of misusing and mishandling finances, Clara Barton resigned from the leadership of the Red Cross in 1904. Under the leadership of Boardman and her friends, the Red Cross formalized its organization to reflect the desires of the American people for efficient, highly organized, and accountable charities. 

Barton spent the rest of her life in Glen Echo, Maryland. She formed the National First Aid Association and remained active up until her death in 1912. Mabel Boardman never really succeeded in erasing Barton's legacy, as today it is Barton who is celebrated as its founder. Yet it is largely due to the efforts of these two women, Clara Barton as its founder and Boardman as its reorganizer that the American Red Cross became the organization it was at the outbreak of the war. By 1914, the American Red Cross was the foremost charitable organization in the country providing relief and funds.