‘Nursing Service is Military Service!’ Rethinking the Role of the American Red Cross Nurse in the First World War

Time: 12:00pm

Location: Claire Fagin Hall, Room 435, Floor 4

n a 1918 American Red Cross nursing recruitment plea, a red-lipped nurse in a blue cape beckons the reader with an outstretched arm: “Nursing Service is Military Service! Nurses, you are needed! Enlist for service now!” World War I historiography has often characterized the Red Cross nurse as a romanticized icon, while few scholars have considered these nurses as real people who put their lives on the line for a greater cause. In this presentation, I argue that American Red Cross nurses during the First World War bear reexamination: They were path breakers, no less than the women of the U.S. armed forces currently being phased into combat roles. These nurses thus deserve belated recognition as female “soldiers” who proved vital to the American and Allied war effort.

To register for the seminar, please visit nursinghistory.eventbrite.com.