Photograph of Cuban Red Cross Volunteers at a Benefit Performance for Cuba’s War Effort.
Havana, Cuba: 1917. Excellent. Item #List2727
The Cuban Red Cross Society was formed in 1909 by Dr. Diego Tamayo y Figueredo. In 1917, when this photograph was taken, it was headed by Madame Mariana Seva de Menocal, wife of then-President Mario García Menocal, who was in office 1913–1921. Cuba had joined the Allies when President Menocal and the Cuban congress declared war on Germany in April of 1917; under Madame de Menocal, the Cuban Red Cross raised $1,000,000 in cash to open and staff a hospital in France. This photograph shows ten women in Red Cross dresses holding what appear to be donation jars. Description verso reads, in part,
“This group of Havana society girls acted as ushers at a recent special Red Cross benefit performance at the National Theatre in Havana of the Cuban Opera for the benefit of the Cuban Red Cross. Their success was so great, that they volunteered for similar additional service at various other benefits held for this organization in the Cuban capital.”.
Price: $275.00