Found 23 collections related to United States Sanitary Commission

The United States Sanitary Commission (USSC), 1861-1879, was a civilian organization authorized by the United States government to provide medical and sanitary assistance to the Union volunteer forces during the United States Civil War (1861-1865). As the USSC broadened the scope of its work during the war, Regular troops, sailors and others also benefited from its services. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, military service claim files, registers, diaries, financial records, scrapbooks, posters, illustrations, photographs, printed matter, maps, ephemera and artifacts concerning the Commission's sanitary, medical and relief work during the Civil War, as well as its post-war relief work and publication activities. The collection also includes the records of the American Association for the Relief of the Misery of Battle Fields, founded in 1866 by USSC officers and former associates. less

George Palmer Putnam (1814-1872) was a book and magazine publisher. Collection consists of letters from Putnam's friends in London and America concerning the publishing business. Other topics include the distribution of "The Rebellion Record", United States Sanitary Commission Fairs, and patriotic activities. less

Lewis Henry Steiner (1827-1892) was an American physician and librarian. He helped to organize the Maryland College of Pharmacy where he held the chair in chemistry. During the Civil War he was an inspector for the United States Sanitary Commission. He was appointed in 1884 librarian of the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, a post he held until 1892. The bulk of the collection consists of letters addressed to Steiner chiefly in his capacity as inspector of the United States Sanitary Commission in Maryland. Most are from officials of the Sanitary Commission and concern inspection reports, medical and health conditions of troops, furnishing of hospital supplies, and related matters. A few letters are from soldiers and their relatives requesting help. Accompanying the letters is a folder of miscellaneous documents including accounts of stock and memoranda. less

The New England Women’s Auxiliary Association (NEWAA) was established on November 28, 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts as an auxiliary branch of the United States Sanitary Commission (USSC). The New England Women’s Auxiliary Association Archives, 1861-1865, consist of the extant records of its Executive Committee. Included are correspondence, packing lists, record books, and index volumes documenting its efforts to collect and distribute supplies for the USSC, and to spread information about the Commission’s work throughout New England, particularly in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont. less

The USSC’s Department of the Gulf was established in New Orleans in 1862. This city became the Department’s base for operations for supply distribution and relief efforts in support of soldiers and sailors in military operations along the Gulf Coast, from Texas to Florida, and into the interior of Louisiana. Its agents accompanied troops during the siege of Port Hudson, 1863, and the Red River campaign in 1864, and sailed with hospital ships carrying sick and wounded soldiers up the Mississippi River. In New Orleans, the USSC established a strong presence by distributing numerous supplies to hospitals, regiments and naval ships. Its Soldiers’ Home provided food and shelter to soldiers in transit, becoming the hub of special relief services to soldiers and their families, including assistance in filing pension and other claims. The Department of the Gulf Archives, 1862-1866, comprise the records of its main office, notably the correspondence of George A. Blake and Edward A. Crane, who directed Department activities; its Special Relief Department, as seen in correspondence, record books documenting services at the Soldiers Homes in New Orleans and Brashear City, Louisiana, and back pay and bounty books recording claim assistance. Supply Department records document the extensive distribution of supplies in New Orleans and elsewhere, and to relief agents for use in the field. Other materials include receipts, cancelled checks and miscellaneous documents. less

The USSC’s Department of Shenandoah (also referred to as the Department of West Virginia) was based at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia from spring 1864 through June 1865 under the direction of Superintendent George A. Mühleck, closing its affairs in July under C. F. Howes. The Department of the Shenandoah Archives, 1864-1865, consist of letters, telegrams, reports from relief agents in the field, departmental orders, hospital reports, stock inventories, financial records, and a register of documents, as well as record books from its agencies in Harpers Ferry, Martinsburg, and Winchester. The records document the Department’s efforts to support Union troops through the distribution of supplies and other forms of relief, particularly during the Shenandoah Valley campaigns of 1864. less

The Executive Committee of Boston Associates (ECBA) was officially organized on April 1, 1863 as a department of the United States Sanitary Commission’s special relief service. It provided transportation, lodging, clothing, meals, medical attention, and aid in obtaining pay for those soldiers in the Boston area who were either discharged, on furlough, sick, or disabled, and in need of assistance. The Executive Committee of Boston Associates archives, 1863-1866, document the work of Executive Committee secretaries John S. Blatchford and James Barnard to coordinate and report on the Committee's special relief services, including their coordination with the New England Women’s Auxiliary Association and other relief organizations, and the work conducted by the superintendent and his staff at the office’s relief rooms. Records include correspondence, reports, meeting files, registers identifying services provided to over 50,000 servicemen, additional notes on relief provided, a Hospital Directory register, and a surgical and medical record of soldiers receiving treatment under ECBA’s care. Two scrapbooks of newsclippings provide further information on USSC activities in Boston. less

The USSC’s Western Department, formally organized in September 1861, assisted soldiers involved primarily in the operations of the Western Theater through a far-reaching network based in Louisville, Kentucky for most of the war. Geologist and paleontologist Dr. John S. Newberry (1822-1892), an Associate Secretary and Commissioner of the USSC, led the Department. Western Department Archives, 1861-1865, primarily document the Department’s extensive supply distribution and relief efforts in the Western Theater, from its first base in Cleveland, Ohio (1861-1862) and later Louisville, Kentucky (1862-1865). Material is arranged by office or function and includes records for the Central Office, some agency offices, supply distribution, and Soldiers’ Homes. less

The Statistical Bureau was established as a special department at Washington in the summer of 1861 to support the Commission’s role as an independent advisory body to the government, with reference to the health, sanitary condition, and general comfort and efficiency of U.S. troops. Under the administration of E.B. Elliott and later Benjamin A. Gould, it compiled forms used by USSC inspectors and relief agents to investigate and monitor such conditions, or other topics determined by the USSC, and it collected data from those forms and tabulated their results for further analysis, reporting and publication by the USSC. It also collected data from Army regimental and medical records to support studies of loss and gain in the U.S. Army, which in turn supported the work of the work of the USSC’s Hospital Directory. The Bureau used Army muster records, along with its own original forms, completed by a staff of examiners, to conduct physiological and sociological studies of the American soldier. In the fall of 1865, the Statistical Bureau moved its records and operations to Boston, Massachusetts, near Gould’s residence in Cambridge. These activities are reflected in the records of the Statistical Bureau Archives, 1861-1869, containing correspondence, original returns, tabulations, abstracts and other studies. Materials concern Camp Inspections; the physical and social condition of troops as seen in records of Height, Age and Nativity, as well as Physical Descriptions and Physical Examinations; reports of U.S. Army general hospitals; and Loss and Gain in Army strength, including transcriptions of regimental returns, diagrams plotting rates of sickness and mortality, and records of statistical loss and gain in battle, with notable studies of the condition of troops fighting at Bull Run and Gettysburg. Although the bulk of the materials concern the Army, data concerning Navy personnel and civilians is also found. The activities of Bureau staff during the administration of Benjamin A. Gould are documented in his incoming correspondence and weekly reports received from staff. less

The Pennsylvania Archives, 1861-1867, bring together the records of three USSC organizations working from offices at 1307 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia: the Philadelphia Agency, which was the operational office of the Philadelphia Associates who organized in 1861; the Women’s Pennsylvania Branch, an auxiliary organization established in 1863; and the USSC’s Canvassing and Supply Department, created in 1864 to coordinate fundraising and publicity among USSC eastern branches, including publication of the Sanitary Bulletin. Also present are records of supply and relief work conducted by USSC relief agents at Gettysburg and Harrisburg. less

The Army of the Potomac Archives, 1862-1865, document the Sanitary Commission's relief work in support of Union armies on campaign in Virginia, from the winter of 1862-1863 to the closing of the USSC’s base at City Point in June, 1865. The establishment of the USSC’s Field Relief Corps and Auxiliary Relief Corps, and USSC operations during Grant’s Overland Campaign and the siege of Petersburg and Richmond are especially well represented. Earlier relief work at Harrison’s Landing during the 1862 Peninsular Campaign is also documented. less

The United States Sanitary Commission established the Army and Navy Claim Agency (ANCA) in Washington, D.C. on April 1, 1864 to serve as the USSC’s central office to assist Union soldiers, sailors, and their families in prosecuting claims on the federal government for pensions, back pay, bounty, commutation of rations, prize money, and other benefits, without cost. The Army and Navy Claim Agency Archives comprise the records of the Army and Navy Claim Agency; the records of the Pension Agency, its predecessor organization; the registers and cash books of its subsidiary local agencies; and the records of two quasi-independent USSC claim agencies whose origins predate the establishment of the Army and Navy Claim Agency: the Protective War Claim Association of the State of New York, located in New York City, and the Protective War Claim and Pension Agency, located in Philadelphia. less

The USSC Maryland Archives contain the records of USSC stations in Annapolis, Baltimore, Frederick, and Sharpsburg, Maryland. The USSC established offices, storehouses, and homes for soldiers and their relatives in these locations at various times throughout the war. less

The English Branch, which existed from the spring of 1864 to the fall of 1865, was established by Americans living in Britain to gain the support of their compatriots for the work of the USSC and the Union cause. The English Branch Archives document the work of the Branch's secretary and USSC agent in London, E.C. (Edmund Crisp) Fisher, as seen in his incoming and outgoing correspondence, journal with minutes, address book, and scrapbook, as well as a register of letters received, and printed matter. less

The Washington DC Archives, 1861-1866, consist of records of the following Sanitary Commission offices and departments based in Washington: the Central Office, the Special Relief Department, and the Supply Department, as well as the records of two departments which operated for limited periods of time: the Agency for the Purchase of Fresh Hospital Supplies, and the Department of Special Inspection of the General Hospitals of the Army. Records of the USSC’s Statistical Bureau and Hospital Directory, located at 244 F Street, are arranged separately. less

The New York, N.Y. Archives, 1861-1878, comprise the records of the USSC’s Standing Committee, papers of USSC president Henry W. Bellows, records of the New York Office, and the Historical Bureau. This group of records was brought together by the USSC during the post-war organization of its records to consolidate documentation of the Commission's New York-based activities. The records of the USSC’s Woman’s Central Association of Relief, also located in New York, are arranged separately (MssCol 22266). less

The Woman’s Central Association of Relief (WCAR) was founded in April 1861 in New York City, officially becoming a branch of the USSC on June 24. Its primary function was the procurement of supplies, obtained from an extensive network of contributing aid societies. The WCAR also participated in other war relief efforts, such as fundraising, registering female nurses for work in military hospitals, and helping to direct returning, discharged soldiers and soldiers' families to local relief agencies for assistance. The Woman’s Central Association of Relief held its final meeting on July 7, 1865, although it continued to receive supplies into October. Two prominent organizers within the WCAR were Louisa Lee Schuyler (1837-1926) and Ellen Collins (1828-1912). The Woman’s Central Association of Relief Archives, 1861-1865, primarily document the supply procurement and distribution activities of the WCAR and consist of correspondence, minutes, reports, supply records, and directories listing associate managers. less

The American Association for the Relief of the Misery of Battle Fields (AARMB) was the first American branch of the Comité Internationale de Secours aux Militaires Blessés (later known as the Red Cross), founded in Geneva in 1863. The main objective of the parent society was to secure neutrality in time of war for hospitals, ambulances, surgeons, and all persons legitimately engaged in caring for the sick and wounded, by international agreement. The AARMB, founded in 1866 by persons affiliated with the USSC, worked to secure U.S. adoption of the Geneva Convention treaty of 1864, and to promote and support the operations of the international organization. The records of the Association consist of outgoing correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, and copies of its publications documenting the Association's administrative work, including promotional and fundraising activities, from its founding in 1866 to its effective closing in 1870. less