AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)

Glen Echo, MD, 4 February 1906. Letter. Faint creases from mailing. Fine with excellent content. A four-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED on both sides of a 10-5/8" x 6-3/4" sheet of light blue paper from the 85year-old founder of the American Red Cross to her friend and supporter Roscoe [Green Wells], who held various positions in the National First Aid Association of America, the organization Barton founded after retiring from the Red Cross in 1904. In part: "I believe I am the earliest and most persistent to shout on the danger line -- Too much work for you both -- I see it and have foreseen it for months, and then the financial worry is worse.... It is not saying but doing that is needed. No one knows that better than I. But enough moralizing!!" Barton talks about overcoming troubles and looks forward to seeing him again. "The little Greetings have certainly been very efficient, so many persons have gotten hold of the idea of 'First Aid' through them, who would scarcely have gotten it in any other way."

Barton established the American Red Cross in 1881, but she was also a suffragist, appearing onstage during suffrage events with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Julia Ward Howe, and Lucy Stone.