Red Cross, Salesman's Dummy.
Salesman’s Dummy
Barton, Clara. The Red Cross. A History of this Remarkable International Movement in the Interest of Humanity. Washington, D.C.: American National Red Cross, (1898).
8vo.; upper hinge cracked; front endpapers offset; all edges browned; grey and white cloth; stamped in gilt, and with the red insignia of the Red Cross; gilt faded; boards soiled; rubbed, and edgeworn. In a specially made cloth slipcase.
Salesman’s dummy for Barton’s book on the history of the Red Cross, used to entice booksellers to stock the complete 684-page book on their shelves; with a frontispiece photograph of Barton, with her facsimile signature.
A morocco spine – decoratively stamped in gilt and blind – has been affixed to the upper pastedown, and offset the following two leaves; a pink leaf of paper, explaining how the prospectus differs from the complete printing, has been tipped-in at the front. A facsimile letter from Barton “To the Public” has been folded and tipped-in at the title page, in which Barton explains that her finished book will be stamped with the official Red Cross logo on the title page, and that “A copy of this letter, duly countersigned by the manager in your locality, will be inserted in front of each Prospectus, and agents are specially requested to have each purchaser read the same.” (Indeed, this letter is stamped by the “Elliott Publishing Co., in Philadelphia.) Bound-in at the rear are 21 pages of “Opinions of Prominent Men Regarding Miss Barton’s Book;” tipped-in at the last page of the “Opinions” section is a folded leaf, indicating the three styles and prices of the book (the cloth binding is $2.75, the half morocco with marbled edges is $3.50, and the full morocco, with “Full Gold Edges, Arabesque Sides, Autograph in Gold,” is $5.50). Also tipped-in between this folded lead is a pink half-leaf memo marked, “Important to Agents;” and the last section of this prospectus consists of eight leaves of blank lined paper, intended to function as an order form, with two signatures of booksellers indicating the edition of the book they are interested in purchasing.
There are over 80 black and white photographic reproductions of Red Cross units stationed around the world, in, for example, Russia, Germany and Cuba, and in various southern states, like Florida, South Carolina and Georgia. Also included are sketches and illustrations of Red Cross nurses tending to the sick—such as the picture captioned, “I am with the wounded,” showing Barton with a soldier in Havana—amd illustrations of battlefields and war ships at sea. There is even a photograph of “the youngest Red Cross nurse, 4 years old,” in a nurse’s uniform tending to a “soldier,” a small boy in a bed playing sick.
The selections of text from the book include her Introduction, where she explains the reasons for writing its history: “The Red Cross has therefore come to be so loved and trusted, its principals and insignia have been so deeply set into the substance of international law and life of many great nations, that people everywhere are beginning to ask with enthusiasm about its origin and history; about the principals on which it acts” (19). The Introduction is followed by one page from the first chapter of the book, eight pages of the chapter on “Cuba and the Cuban Campaign,” eleven pages from the chapter titled, “Home Camps and American Waters,” and a single page on “Camp Alger,” in Virginia. All of these excerpts end abruptly in mid-sentence.
Barton reveals how she and the Red Cross got involved in these campaigns, how they negotiated legislative red tape, how they relied on fundraising, and how supplies were shipped and transportation arranged. She explains some of the difficulties surrounding the Cuban relief campaign, “that the Red Cross being international, would affiliate with Spain, and ignore the ‘Cuban Red Cross’ already working there and here, as if poor Cuba, with no national government or treaty-making power, c
Print Inquire