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| Image title: Motor Corps taking "Flivver" apart (28 Oct 1918). American National Red Cross photograph collection (Library of Congress). |
The American Red Cross Motor Corps was a unit of women who served during
WWI and WWII to transport and give aid to sick and wounded troops and
to support the American Red Cross (ARC). Their duties were many, and
they often took on additional tasks and went far beyond their call of duty. During the flu pandemic of 1918-1920, the Motor Corps often traveled the country and overseas, caring for the sick, their loved ones, and even their homes:
Fearless of the possibility of contracting influenza themselves, the Motor Corps women worked night and day, serving frequently as much as 100 hours per week apiece, carrying patients—on their backs, in sheets, in blankets, on chairs, or whatever was available when stretchers could not be used— to hospitals from homes of poverty and luxury alike. No assignment was refused, nor did members of the Motor Corps confine themselves to these services-—they did anything that needed doing. It is on record that they actually scrubbed floors and cooked meals for families, all members of which were ill, and in several instances they even conducted funerals. (The Redcross Bulletin, Vols. 4-5, cited in Wikipedia).
Fearless of the possibility of contracting influenza themselves, the Motor Corps women worked night and day, serving frequently as much as 100 hours per week apiece, carrying patients—on their backs, in sheets, in blankets, on chairs, or whatever was available when stretchers could not be used— to hospitals from homes of poverty and luxury alike. No assignment was refused, nor did members of the Motor Corps confine themselves to these services-—they did anything that needed doing. It is on record that they actually scrubbed floors and cooked meals for families, all members of which were ill, and in several instances they even conducted funerals. (The Redcross Bulletin, Vols. 4-5, cited in Wikipedia).
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| Maria Michella Casbarro "Margaret Casper" in uniform 1917 (age 22). Part of a pennant is visible on the wall and may have read "A.R.C." (American Red Cross). Personal family collection. Please do not copy or distribute. |
Born in New York, 1895, to Italian immigrants, Maria Michela Casbarro (later Margaret Agnes
Casper), was a longtime volunteer nurse for the Red Cross and served in
both WWI and WWII. We have recently discovered this photograph of her
wearing a Motor Corps Driver uniform in 1917, the year the Motor Corps
began. This was a specific part of her story that we never knew about,
and it has inspired us to learn more about these selfless
and valiant women.
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| American Red Cross Uniforms from Left to Right: 1. Motor Corps Driver's
Uniform, 2. another style of Motor Corps Driver's uniform (the one worn by
Maria Casbarro), 3. Motor Corp Driver's Overcoat, 4. Foreign Service
Uniform. Photos of women wearing uniform number two without the long overcoat seem to be scarce. Image courtesy of The Smithsonian under fair use law. Original author unknown. |
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| Motor Corps Minneapolis, Minnesota, 27 November 1918. American National Red Cross photograph collection (Library of Congress). |
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| Motor Corps receiving instructions in First Aid, 28 October 1918. American National Red Cross photograph collection (Library of Congress). |
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| "Motor Corps Women did much for the comfort of sick and wounded during the war and after. Two are here shown doing their bit in helping a wounded hero from ambulance into a theatre where a show was given for wounded Colored soldiers." Scott, Emmett J. The American Negro in the World War, Chapter VIII (1919). |
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| St. Louis Red Cross Motor Corps on duty, October 1918. American National Red Cross photograph collection (Library of Congress). "The Motor Corps has been a service of unselfishness and self-sacrifice, made possible only by the spirit of generosity which the war evoked throughout the nation. From this account it would be ungracious to omit mention also of the silent contribution made by many husbands, brothers, fathers, sisters, and mothers, who have given the entire use of their cars to this service. Indeed the whole story of the Motor Corps is a remarkable and interesting page in the history of the development of war-time transportation." -The Red Cross Bulletin, 1920 |
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| Photo of Florence Harriman heading Washington Ambulance Corps in Red Cross parade 4 October 1917. Work is in the public domain in the United States. |
From the autobiography of Florence Jaffray Harriman, women's rights advocate, author, and Red Cross Motor Corps Driver:
Tuesday, May 29th, 1917. Helen Astor wants me to let Ethel go to France to do Y.M.C.A. work with her. It is a great opportunity, but it is hard to reconcile myself to parting with her. I wish that I could go myself, but now that I have accepted Mr. Gompers’ appointment, I couldn’t very well do that.
I hardly remember at all what I did in the summer of 1917. I missed Ethel dreadfully, and since she wasn't at home, took on the ambulance work on Sundays. The week I divided very evenly between the Committee on Women in Industry and the Red Cross Motor Corps. The Sunday runs of the ambulance were hard work, but never without an incident. Usually we went to Humphries and brought patients back from there to Walter Reed Hospital, a round trip of about fifty-five miles.
One evening I was driving with my girl orderly beside me. We had three very sick soldiers, one unconscious and one delirious. The road from the camp to Washington was only just under construction and a thunder-storm on the way out had so mucked a part of the road just before the main highway that we were mire. The girl orderly loped off down the road until she found two kind young men and ran them back to pry us out. In the middle of our trouble our third patient made a sign that he felt seasick. Our new ambulance was our pride and our joy. My orderly almost automatically snatched what proved to be a brannew hat from the head of our kindly rescuer, thrust it under the soldier's chin with a pleading, "Goodness sakes, don't spoil the ambulance! Use this."
It may have been just a case of man standing by man. The seasick man, out of respect for his brother's hat, settled back and didn't use it.
The rule was that no man, unless in uniform, could accompany us on Motor Corps work and it was very rare that an officer had time to volunteer to come along. And my fleet-footed orderly couldn't always find husky arms to conscript on the lonely country road. The girls used to change tires themselves with extraordinary speed when we had a critical case inside. They used to get up at 4 A.M. They followed behind green troops on country hikes and carried the canteen workers back and forth.
The work was organized in March, 1917, at Miss Boardman’s request, and a few days after war was declared, the organization was complete. Ethel designed the Corps uniform, long gray coat and breeches, high boots, leather belt and a service cap. What stormy meetings we used to have and all about the uniform. Some thought breeches wouldn’t become them. Some said their husbands would never, never let them wear such things. Some, who knew beforehand how beautifully they could wear the uniform, turned out quite incapable of driving a car. Once we got the coats and breeches made, they became so popular that the national motor service of the Red Cross followed the example of our Washington Corps and the breeches dispute became a lost cause.
The members qualified themselves for their service by taking courses in the first aid and motor repair work, and they received stretcher drills from officers of the 6th Engineers and became very skilful in lifting the injured, placing them on litters, loading and unloading ambulances, and carrying the stretchers into hospitals and houses. When I went to Europe in the autumn of 1917, Mrs. Floyd Waggaman became Commanding Officer pro tem., and I resumed command on my return the following spring. In September, 1918, when I went across again, I resigned and Mrs. David Fairchild took my place, followed later by Mrs. Carter. The best work was done while I was overseas during the influenza epidemic. Then the Motor Corps members went in and out of houses, carrying the stretchers themselves. In all they carried as many as two thousand patients to the hospitals. They did a yeoman’s service. Members of the Corps were on duty for twenty-four hours at a time, sleeping on cots in the garage between calls.
Harriman, Florence Jaffray, 1870-1967. From pinafores to politics. Henry Holt and Company, publishers. National American Woman Suffrage Association Collection Library of Congress, https://lccn.loc.gov/23017479.
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| The automobile fleet of the Women's Volunteer Motor Corps of the A.R.C. was out in force to transport wounded veterans in the great welcome parade accorded the Twenty-seventh Division in N.Y. March 25, 1919. These men had an honor position in the long column and received a tumultuous ovation by the millions that witnessed the spectacle. American National Red Cross photograph collection (Library of Congress). |
Learn more about the woman of the Red Cross Motor Corps:
National Women's History Museum
TransportationHistory.org
The Red Cross Bulletin, Volumes 4-5, American Red Cross, 1920
