Published by The Evansville Courier

But when the nation joined World War I in 1917, only two Red Cross members were in Evansville.

Soon after the war began, Courier President-General Manager Henry Murphy and his wife established a local chapter of the American Red Cross.

It is recorded that 6,671 people joined the chapter within one week.

From a vacant building at 303 Main St., hundreds of volunteers - mostly women - began their work. Sheets, pillow cases, pneumonia jackets and other hospital garments were sewn. Hundreds of thousands of surgical dressings and compresses were prepared. And knitting groups - even schoolchildren - turned out scarves, sweaters and socks.

A "kitchen canteen" was set up across from the Louisville & Nashville Railroad station to feed the thousands of servicemen who passed through the city after basic training. (In 1942, the Evansville newspapers donated a larger Red Cross canteen that was built at the same Fulton Avenue location.)

The Courier printed photographs in December 1918 titled, "Evansville - Where the Soldier Boys Get Their Fill." The Karl Kae Knecht photos captured young soldiers smiling from the windows of trains and receiving meals and cigarettes from white-veiled volunteers. In one photo, former President William H. Taft stands with a group of city officials and Red Cross workers.

Photographs by Knecht recorded the feel of wartime in Evansville. Military divisions marching toward the train depot, volunteer companies sleeping in the Coliseum, spirited parades and loving farewells - these images kept readers in touch with the Tri-State's role in the "war to end all wars."