Red Cross Christmas roll call...

An American Red Cross poster issued to promote the Red Cross Roll Call of Christmas 1918, featuring the images of a heroic women and a nurse, with a large Red Cross, US flag and holly. Prior to the First World War, the Red Cross introduced its first aid, water safety, and public health nursing programs. With the outbreak of war, the organization experienced phenomenal growth. The number of local chapters jumped from 107 in 1914 to 3,864 in 1918 and membership grew from 17,000 to more than 20 million adult and 11 million Junior Red Cross members. The public contributed $400 million in funds and material to support Red Cross programs, including those for American and Allied forces and civilian refugees. The Red Cross staffed hospitals and ambulance companies and recruited 20,000 registered nurses to serve the military. Additional Red Cross nurses came forward to combat the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918. After the war, the Red Cross focused on service to veterans and enhanced its programs in safety training, accident prevention, home care for the sick and nutrition education.

Often referred to as the "dean of American mural painters, Edwin Howland Blashfield (1848-1936) was one of the foremost exponents of academic realism in America. Born in Brooklyn in 1848, Blashfield attended Boston Latin School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was able to develop his expertise as a draftsman. Determined to become an artist, he went on spend three months studying under Thomas Johnson, a pupil of the Barbizon painter, William Morris Hunt. During the late 1880s and early 1890s he produced many allegorical and religious paintings. He was also in demand as an illustrator. From 1893 he devoted most of his time to mural work, executing major commissions. Like other artists working in the "grand style," Blashfield frequently borrowed motifs from classical sources, often combining Renaissance allegory with ideal female types.