Caption from LIFE. "The pretty young Red Cross volunteer you see on this week's cover is Martha Jean Bailey of Jackson Heights, NY. She joined the Junior Red Cross when she first started school. When the war began she went to work with the regular New York chapter, to which her mother also belongs. Martha is shown wearing the yellow and white uniform of the Staff Assistance Corps (clerical volunteers). It is very becoming to her dark hair and gray-green eyes."Herbert Gehr—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
In May 1881 Clara Barton — the legendary Civil War nurse known as “the Angel of the Battlefield” — and a philanthropist and humanitarian named Adolphus Solomons founded the American Red Cross. The International Committee of the Red Cross had been formed 18 years earlier, in Switzerland, and both Barton and Solomons had been so impressed by what they’d witnessed of its work in various theaters of war and other crises that they were determined that the United States would and should have its own, viable chapter.
In a July 1940 installment of its regular “LIFE Goes to a . . .” feature (“LIFE Goes to a Mardi Gras Ball,” “LIFE Goes to a Hitler Hex Party,” and so on), LIFE magazine paid homage to the venerable charity with an article titled “LIFE Goes to a Red Cross Meeting.”
LIFE calls this week on a chapter of the American Red Cross at Mineola, Long Island, NY. Of all the beneficent societies created by men [sic] of good will, none has a nobler record than the 76-year-old Red Cross, shield of the sick and wounded in war and peace. During World war I the American society, under Henry P. Davison, raised $400,000. No sooner had World War II begun than it swung into action again. Now that France has been crushed, its load has increased tenfold.
In some ways the good works of the Red Cross shine back on its own supporters and staff. Human morale is always lifted by service to a high cause. Today the American Red Cross has 7,500,000 paying members and 3,714 chapters — in every U.S. county but two. Of these the New York chapter is the biggest, the most active. A model suburban chapter is the Nassau County unit, headed by Mrs. Henry P. Davison, widow of the former national chairman. Since September its 6,0000 volunteer workers have sent 18,000 garments to refugees overseas. Since My they have raised $90,000 — more than double their county quota. Here you see them on duty, giving their time freely, unstintingly, to the loftiest of all causes — the cause of charity.
Caption from LIFE. "The pretty young Red Cross volunteer you see on this week's cover is Martha Jean Bailey of Jackson Heights, NY. She joined the Junior Red Cross when she first started school. When the war began she went to work with the regular New York chapter, to which her mother also belongs. Martha is shown wearing the yellow and white uniform of the Staff Assistance Corps (clerical volunteers). It is very becoming to her dark hair and gray-green eyes."Herbert Gehr—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesThe Red Cross' Nassau County headquarters, Long Island, New York, 1940.William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "The motor corps takes finished garments to a New Jersey warehouse to be stored for shipping to Europe."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Champion cutter of the [Nassau] chapter is shown here using an automatic shearing machine on a boy's shirt. She works three hours a day, four days a week, averages 210 garments per session. During World War I cutting clothes, like destroying an army, was considered slower process."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Sewing-machine squads at local units stitch together the finished garments. This group is at work in the Locust Valley library."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "A small gauze sponge, used for dressing and packing deep wounds, is rolled by workers in chapter house. The various steps are shown here in clockwise progression."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Gauze is a basic raw material of every Red Cross unit. Here a volunteer worker prepares a dressing. Making bandages -- not knitting -- are the main duties of Red Cross volunteers."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Six essential bandages the Red Cross worker must know how to make are shown here. They are: cotton pads (two sizes); gauze fluff; gauze sponges (two sizes)."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Checks arrive at chapter headquarters at the rate of 130 a day. A volunteer clerical staff records the contributions, acknowledges them, keeps the accounts."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesCaption from LIFE. "Finished clothes are brought into the chapter house by members of the Garden City unit. Garments are first cut at county headquarters, then sent out to local units for stitching and finishing."William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty ImagesAmerican Red Cross worker, 1940.William C. Shrout—Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
