New Resources for California Scholars: The American National Red Cross Historical Nurse Files, ca. 1916 to ca. 1959 Available to Purchase

On November 21, 2022, the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) launched the redesign of its online catalog.¹ One of the resources helpful for California scholars is “The American National Red Cross Historical Nurse Files, ca. 1916–ca. 1959,” a portion of the collection of the records of the American National Red Cross, 1881–2008 (ARC). These archives offer a treasure trove of information about the dedicated nurses who tended to the sick, wounded, and dying during World War I and World War II and their subsequent relationship with the ARC. The material includes correspondence, applications, biographical questionnaires, letters of reference, assignments, military orders, efficiency reports, memoranda, press clippings, and photographs.²

For example, the National Archives digitized seventy-two images of the records for Stockton native Elizabeth Haywood Ashe, who served as a chief nurse for the ARC’s Children’s Bureau in France during World War I (Figures 1 and...