"War does strange things": The mobilization of the American Fund for French Wounded in World War I

Founded and run by elite and professional American women, the American Fund for French Wounded (Comité Américain pour les Blessés Français) was one of the more visible and efficient of the dozens of American relief organizations in World War I. Branching out fairly acrimoniously from the London-based French Wounded Emergency Fund in 1915, the AFFW was founded by Anne Morgan and Isabel Lathrop, both of whom had settlement house experience and familial ties to high finance. Indeed, as this paper argues, it was this nexus of higher education, professional and organizational experience, social connections, and access to money that contributed to AFFW’s great effectiveness. With the fundraising arm generally based in New York, the Paris Depot handled distribution of the goods and funds to military and civil hospitals throughout France.

         Outside of individual memoirs (including Gertrude Stein’s Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas), none of which are by the main organizers, there is little that has been published about this organization. Using correspondence and reports from the AFFW documents at the New York Public Library’s manuscript collection, in addition to other archival and secondary sources, this paper examines the organization of the AFFW from its origins to its arrangement with the American Red Cross after the U.S. joined the war, and to its spin-off agency, the American Committee for Devastated France, situating the existence of such voluntary relief organizations within the gender and sexuality constructions (and limitations) of the time and place.