Group portrait of 37 nurses who were the first unit of Polish nurses to go overseas. Polish White Cross was a civilian paramilitary organization founded in the United States during World War I through the efforts of Helena Paderewska, set up to assist the victims of war. Paderewska, due to the opposition of the Red Cross to the creation of the Polish branch of the organization, organized and financed the recruitment of volunteers for service care to send them to places where the First World War fought three Poles conscripted into the army - Russian, German and Austrian. The second objective of statutory association with the White Cross has become particularly well known, was to spread culture and education, arousing patriotism and national identity and citizenship among Polish soldiers serving in the armies of conquest. Photo taken by Underwood and Underwood, June 1918.