This collection is made up of correspondence and receipts received by Mary Watts relating to her certification, participation, and engagement with the American Red Cross Nursing Service between 1917 and 1918. Watts donated funds to the National War Finance Committee of the American Red Cross, completed a course to become certified in preparing surgical dressings to be packaged and shipped abroad for wounded soldiers, and volunteered for the Pittsburgh Chapter Preparedness Branch of the American Red Cross. Throughout this collection, Mary Watts is referred to as "Mrs. Henry Watts," "Mrs. Henry Walls," and "Mrs. Harry Watts." This collection highlights and documents one of the many ways women were able to join and aid in the war effort.
Mary Hamilton Watts (née Ferguson) was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, on May 16, 1866, and was one of four children to parents John Scott Ferguson (1842-1914) and Nancy Graham Ferguson (1845-1916). In 1888, she married Henry Watts (1854-1915), who held several occupations throughout his life as a bookseller, electrician, and was an investment broker until his death. Mary was a housewife/homemaker and mother to one child, Nancy Graham Watts, who died shortly after birth in 1899. Mary and Henry Watts resided in Allegheny County and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, throughout their marriage and Mary remained in Pittsburgh as a widow until at least 1920, staying in the Rittenhouse Hotel between June 1917 and June 1918 where she communications for the scope of this collection. Mary died on May 24, 1933, in Leesburg, Loudon County, Virginia, and was buried next to her husband and daughter at the Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Mary was a Daughter of the American Revolution, as she was great granddaughter of John Ferguson, who volunteered for service in 1775 and later re-enlisted in 1778 aiding in the Revolutionary War effort.