1896 American Red Cross Relief Expedition to Armenia 1896 Part 1

The National Armenian Relief Committee (1896) was formed out of the leadership given by the New York Armenian Relief Committee and became a loosely federated organization in response to the Hamidian massacres. On advice from missionaries in Constantinople, the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, with headquarters in Boston, had decided early in December, 1895, that the American National Red Cross was the best possible agency for distribution, having the experience of working in the recent Russian famine of 1881. In December 1895, Clara Barton was recruited by the National Armenian Relief Committee to administer the funds through the Red Cross. In 1896, she went from the United States to Constantinople to administer the funds of the National Armenian Relief Committee.