Ambulance used during the Spanish-American War, 1898

Unknown artist

This ambulance is one of eleven vehicles purchased in 1898 by the Central Cuban Relief Committee of New York for use by Clara Barton and the American National Red Cross. The committee sent the ambulance to the Red Cross Headquarters at Camp Thomas at Chickamauga, Georgia, before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War. There the Red Cross helped care for U.S. Army soldiers called to Cuba. After the war, Barton used the ambulance at her Glen Echo, Maryland, home, which served as Red Cross headquarters, storehouse, and distribution point for relief supplies.