Guest blogger Elsie Birnbaum investigates history of Girl Scout first aid badges, including recent changes.
When GSUSA changed the design of the First Aid badges last year, my first reaction was huh…? I wonder if it’s because the previous badge designs violated the Geneva Conventions.
If you’re unfamiliar, in 2024 GSUSA changed all their first aid badges from being a Red Cross on a yellow background to level-specific designs that reflect the requirements of each badge. The previous design may seem the obvious choice: the Red Cross is a universal sign for medical aid, why not use it?
Don’t Inadvertently Tarnish the Red Cross
Well, the International Red Cross is actually incredibly protective of the use of its symbol. And understandably so. It’s important that the symbol of the Red Cross continues to solely represent neutral noncombatants providing medical aid. Not only is the symbol of the Red Cross protected under 18 U.S. Code § 706, it is also enshrined in International Law under the Geneva Convention of 1864. Specifically,
The red cross and red crescent emblems are protected symbols under international humanitarian law and national laws. Any use that is not expressly authorized by the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols constitutes a misuse of the emblem. Use of these emblems by unauthorized persons is strictly forbidden. (www.ircrc.org)
This is why the symbol for hospitals is often an H in a square, and ambulances use “The Star of Life. The video game Stardew Valley once released patch notes stating: “Fixed a Geneva Convention Violation”.
Now there are exceptions. The Red Cross will use its own symbols for promotion and fundraising, sometimes in ways that seemingly violate ethos of the Red Cross symbol such as the popular Red Cross Snoopy t-shirt. The symbol of the Red Cross is illegally used in popular video games such as Team Fortress 2 without any known legal repercussions.
Perhaps the Girl Scouts were once such an exception. Early badges featured a red cross.
Please, Stop Using the Red Cross Symbol
However, from 1924 to 2011, the Girl Scouts did not use the Red Cross symbol in their badges, because in 1923, the American Red Cross asked them not to.
As the April 1923 issue of The American Girl explained: “National Headquarters has found it necessary to change the First Aid and Scout Aid Badges, as it is no longer permissible for us to use the Red Cross as a symbol”.
The American Girl invited Girl Scout troops to vote on a design for the First Aid badge and to write in if they “have any further suggestions to offer”.
Girl Scouts of the USA published a monthly magazine, The American Girl, from June 1920 to July 1979. The famous doll company published the simpler-titled American Girl magazine from1993 to 2019.
Notably, neither of the designs shown for First Aid were adopted nor was the design supposedly adopted for Scout Aid ever used. Instead, the back matter of the June edition of The American Girl announced that that a tourniquet design was adopted for First Aide and a design of a trefoil with the word “Aide” in the center was adopted for Scout Aide.
There was also a third, similar badge that was changed without fanfare. Home Nurse, which used a green cross, was changed to a hospital bed the same year. But there was no coverage in The American Girl nor was it put to a vote.
Settling on a Symbol: The Maltese Cross
The First Aid badge would change again in 1938 when the First Aid and Child Nurse badges were merged. Now the First Aid badge took the design previously used for Child Nurse: a Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross would then remain the symbol of the First Aid badge from 1938 to the 2011 redesign.
Why Change the First Aid Badges at All?
One possibility is that the Maltese Cross First Aid badge was a badge exclusive to Intermediate/Junior/Cadette Girl Scouts, depending on the era. The new First Aid badges would be available for five levels (Brownie and above) and therefore needed a design not previously used. Or perhaps the Maltese Cross was deemed too abstract for today’s girl. Notably, the Maltese Cross is not used as a symbol for ambulances in the United States (but the St. John Ambulance corps use it is in parts of the British Commonwealth). I couldn’t find anyone even remarking on the new design in 2011, so clearly the new designs weren’t considered particularly noteworthy.
Similarly, when the badges were updated again in 2024, it was greeted with the same limited fanfare as 2011. No GSUSA press release and some blog coverage from people who keep track of new Girl Scout badges. We will likely never definitively know why the first aid badge was redesigned. Was it because the Red Cross made a trademark claim or did GSUSA change it pre-emptively or was it simply decided that each level should have a distinct badge design?
Whatever the reason, it is certainly a neat trick of history that the Girl Scouts changed their First Aid badges to remove the Red Cross symbol twice: first in 1924 and then again in 2024.
It’s Ann here. Did anybody else notice that some badges were “First Aid,” but older badges were “First AidE”. There seems to be a deliberate change for the badges released in 1938. I haven’t seen any comment on the spelling quirk, but my guess is a change of focus. An “aide” is a human; a person who can assist, while “first aid” is a set of skills. A First Aide is a person trained in first aid?
That makes sense until you notice that the 1923 clipping from The American Girl uses “aid.”
© 2025 Ann Robertson, writer, editor, Girl Scout historian, but NOT a Girl Scout employee.