The Red Cross Takes Shape: Portraits and Papers from Its Beginnings

Dunant’s experience at Solferino led him to argue for permanent relief societies and an international agreement protecting the wounded. The ICRC dates this portrait to 1863. The reproduced file has received contrast adjustment and dust cleanup, noted in its Commons history.

The opening page of A Memory of Solferino survives here in a handwritten version. Dunant’s 1862 book moved from an account of wounded soldiers to proposals for trained volunteers and an international agreement. The reproduced page represents the argument that preceded the October resolutions.

Moynier chaired the Geneva Society of Public Welfare, which took up Dunant’s proposals and appointed the small committee. This portrait comes from later in his life. His part in the story was organizational: the proposals needed meetings, correspondence and institutions capable of carrying them forward.

Louis Appia brought a medical perspective to the committee. The conference’s resolutions concerned training, supplies and how volunteer personnel would work with military services. This undated portrait is identified as Appia; it should not be treated as a scene from the 1863 meeting.

The first page of the Geneva Convention shows the treaty that followed the resolutions. Signed on August 22, 1864, it established protections for wounded soldiers and medical services. This is a later reproduction of the document, not a photograph taken at the 1863 conference.