Existing comment:
Influenza Pandemic
Photographer Lewis Hine joined the American Red Cross in 1918 and then did freelance photography for the organization through the 1930s. By the time this photograph was taken in July of 1918, nearly 24,000 American Red Cross nurses were enrolled for military service. A devastating challenge emerged the same year in the form of an influenza pandemic that would eventually claim an estimated 20 to 50 million lives, more than were killed by enemy weapons . The Red Cross continued working with the U.S. Public Health Service to provide nurses and motor corps workers until the pandemic receded in 1919. |