Eleanor Roosevelt worked with the Red Cross during the First World War

The United States entered World War I on April 6, 1917. In Europe, the war had begun in August 1914, millions had died, and a stalemate had been reached.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt moved to Washington, DC from their home on 65th Street in 1913 to serve the nation. As Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the war, Franklin was on the front lines of policy and operations. The lessons he learned about prosecuting and financing a war, as well as the terrible toll it took on lives, would stay with him for the rest of his life and influence his decisions during WWII. Eleanor Roosevelt became a Red Cross volunteer in Washington, where she inspired others and developed the extraordinary emotional skills she would use during WWII and later in her human rights work. She paid visits to injured soldiers at local military hospitals and advocated for more funding to improve their care and assist their families. In January 1919, she traveled to Europe with FDR and witnessed the devastation of the French countryside. Her experiences there and in Washington led her, like Franklin, to support President Wilson's League of Nations and seek new ideas for peace.