American Red Cross
The History
The Red cross traces first started with a trip made in 1859 by Jean - Henri Dunant. Mr. Dunant was a Swiss business man, who traveled in Italy, and witnessed the Battle of Solferino. During this Battle, he then noticed 40,000 dead or wounded troops, without any help. A few years later he then published a pamphlet that informed people of international volunteer societies to aid wounded soldiers. By 1863, Jean Dunant then formed a five - member committee, which then formed the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva. In addition, this created 16 countries who attended the first conference, which lead to the formation of national Red Cross societies across Europe.
Therefore, a red cross on a white background symbolized the reverse of the Swiss flag was chosen as the organization’s symbol. In 1881, the American Red Cross was formed after the Civil War, therefore, a famous women by the name of Clara Barton provided assistance to the wounded soldiers at war. In addition, she convinced the Congress to support the Geneva Corporation, which helped form the American Association of the Red Cross. The Congress passed the bill in 1882. Clara Barton then expanded the Red Cross mission to include aiding all the victim of a natural disasters. After the war, the American Red Cross started to help refugees in Europe by recruiting a lot of nurses to help improve the health and hygiene of rural Americans.
The Red Cross also established the very first blood center in New York’s Presbyterian Hospital in 1941. In 1956, the Red Cross began to research the safety of it’s blood supply. The Civilian blood program provided to nearly 50 percent of the country. Red Cross services over four million people to give blood, the gift of life, which makes it the largest blood supplier in the United States. In 1990, the Red Cross started to expand their role in the biomedical research, and entered a new field of human tissue banking and...
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