Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User Information
Historical Note
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Inventory
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Paul Brockman
19 February 1990
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 1 manuscript box, 19 reels of microfilm
COLLECTION DATES: 1916-1978
PROVENANCE: Indianapolis area chapter of the American National Red Cross, 441 E. 10th Street, Indianapolis, In. 46204, 11 September 1980
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS:
ACCESSION NUMBER: 90.0100X
NOTES: Photographs are stored in Visual Collections. Copies of Red Cross Courier's and Red Cross Magazine were transferred to Printed Collections. There may be periodic additions to this collection.
The Indianapolis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross was formed on July 19, 1916 with William Fortune as president, Rev. Francis H. Gavisk as vice-president, John H. Holliday as treasurer, and Guernsey Van Riper as secretary. This largely volunteer agency is concerned primarily with assisting the victims of disasters. The initial membership was 3,024 with each person paying $1.00 to join. The chapter's first service was providing food, clothing, medicines, and volunteer help to victims of a series of tornadoes that struck Indiana in 1917. The Red Cross provided similar assistance when a tornado hit Indianapolis in 1927. When the Ohio River flooded parts of southern Indiana in January, 1937, the Indianapolis chapter provided shelter for over 1,000 victims from Jeffersonville, Lawrenceburg, and Aurora at the Indiana State Fairgrounds as well as furnishing food, clothing, nursing care, and transportation.
Another well known service of the Red Cross is assistance to the military during times of armed conflict. During World War I the Indianapolis chapter added over 15,000 volunteers and expanded its current activities and added new programs. In addition to sewing and knitting millions of surgical dressings, the organization supplied services to the men that increased morale such as those provided by the Civilian Relief program which kept servicemen in touch with their families and assisted those in need. A major contribution of the Indianapolis chapter was the Lilly Base Hospital (Base Hospital 32) which was located in Contrexeville, France, and was staffed largely by Indiana doctors and Red Cross nurses. The hospital treated 9,698 patients from French battlefields. World War II saw the Indianapolis chapter with an even greater participatory role. Among the provided services were communications between soldiers and their families, transportation of wounded from airfields to hospitals, coordinating blood drives, and the caring for the wounded at Billings and Wakeman hospitals in central Indiana. The Indianapolis chapter performed similar operations during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
The Red Cross also supplies the public with first aid, home nursing, and nutrition information and education. The best known of these functions are the first aid, life saving, and swimming classes. With the dawn of the atomic age, the Red Cross assumed civil defense education in the event of a nuclear strike.
The Indianapolis chapter is one of approximately 8,000 chapters chartered by the American National Red Cross and is controlled by a local board of directors. Although each chapter is subject to the direction of a national board of governors as created by Congress, a large degree of individual autonomy is retained. The only mandatory chapter requirements are in the areas of financing, assistance to the armed forces, and relief to disaster victims. The organization was a former member of the United Fund and is currently a member of the United Way. In the 1960s the Indianapolis chapter extended its boundaries to include all of Marion, Hancock, Morgan, and Hendricks counties in central Indiana.
The largest part of the Indianapolis Chapter of the American National Red Cross consist of 11 scrapbooks of the organizations minutes, July, 1916-June, 1951, and 47 scrapbooks of newsclippings and other printed material relating to the chapter's activities, services, and general information, 1918-1957. This portion of the records have been microfilmed because of their unstable condition. The minutes contain information about the organization's activities, finances, campaign progress, building operation and maintenance, appropriate actions to take in response to disasters and other crisis, election of officers, various committee reports and minutes such as the Camp and Hospital, Home Service, Blood Donor Program, and Civilian Defense. The minutes also include those of the executive committee reports and meeting minutes and agendas for the general meetings. The largest portion of the scrapbooks are from the World War II years, 1941-1945, and contain clippings from mostly Indianapolis newspapers regarding the Red Cross' contribution to the war effort. Information includes blood drives, financial assistance campaigns, morale boosting activities for servicemen, and nursing. Other items of a non war nature include classes offered, disaster information and responses, and member's contributions to the community.
The records also include correspondence, publications, annual reports and organizational information, 1918-1978. Most of these items are of a general nature and reflect the organization's contributions both locally and nationally. There are also awards given for service to the Indianapolis chapter, Community Fund agreements, and information about William Fortune and his contributions to the local organization. There also are copies of the national organization's publication DISASTER from 1947-1950.
American Red Cross, Indianapolis Area Chapter Records, (largely meeting minutes) and scrapbooks, 1916-1951 are on microfilm.
Two cubic foot boxes of a scrapbook and framed photos dealing with activities and individuals were transferred to Visual Collections and 11 bound volumes of the national organization's publications, the RED CROSS COURIER from 1922-1929 and 1937-1949 and RED CROSS MAGAZINE from 1951, were transferred to Printed Collections.
Box 1: Correspondence and Papers, 1918-1978; Publications, 1918-1970s
Folder 1: Correspondence, 1918-1978
Folder 2: Master Duplicator Stencils, Finance Committee Report, 1952
Folder 3: Historical Information, 1940s-1960s
Folder 4: Annual Report, 1966
Folder 5: Community Fund Agreements, 1923-1933
Folder 6: Organizational Information, 1955-1968
Folder 7: Newsclippings, 1927-1967
Folder 8: Certificates and Awards, 1945-1966
Folder 9: American Association of Universalist Women, 1953 & 1966
Folder 10: William Fortune, 1926-1942
Folder 11: Manuals and Organizational Publications, 1918-1961
Folder 12: Publications, 1950s-1970s
Folder 13: DISASTER, 1947-1948
Folder 14: DISASTER, 1949-1950
MICROFILM LISTING
F 1090: Meeting Minutes & Financial Reports, July, 1916-Sept., 1922
F 1091: Meeting Minutes & Financial Reports, Oct., 1922-Oct., 1920
F 1092: Minutes, Nov., 1927-Dec., 1937
F 1093; Financial Records, 1948-1951
F 1094: Financial Reports, 1938-1942
F 1095: Financial Reports, 1943-1947
F 1096: Scrapbook, Newspaper Clippings, 1917-1920
F 1097: Scrapbooks, 1923-1933
F 1098: Scrapbooks, 1933-1942
F 1099: Scrapbook, Newspaper Clippings, 1941-1948
F 1100: Scrapbook, 1942
F 1101: Scrapbook, Newspaper Clippings, 1942-1944
F 1102: Scrapbooks, 1942-1945
F 1103: Scrapbook, 1943-1945
F 1104: Scrapbooks, Newspaper Clippings, 1943-1945
F 1105: Scrapbook, 1945-1947
F 1106: Scrapbook, 1948-1949
F 1107: Scrapbooks, Newspaper Clippings, 1949-1950
F 1108: Scrapbook, Newspaper Clippings, 1951-1952
MAIN ENTRY: American Red Cross. Indianapolis Area Chapter
SUBJECT ENTRIES: American Red Cross. Indianapolis Area Chapter
Fortune, William, 1863-1942
Association of Universalist Women
Red Cross--Indiana
Disaster relief--Indiana
War--Relief of sick and wounded
World War, 1939-1945--War work--Indiana--Red Cross
World War, 1939-1945--Civilian relief--Indiana
World War, 1939-1945--Medical care--France
Blood donors--Indiana
Civil Defense--Indiana
Voluntary health agencies--Indiana
Scrapbooks--Indiana--Indianapolis
Charities--Indiana--Indianapolis
END