Clara Barton and the Red Cross

                                                                                       Clara Barton
Clara Barton was the first person to establish the Red Cross but before she did that she had an eventful life leading up to it. She was born Clarissa Harlowe Barton on December 25,1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts (Clara Barton Museum). She was the youngest of five.  Barton received a formal education and become a school house teacher at the age of 18(NPS).She taught in her hometown of Oxford Massachusetts. In 1845 she started a school for the children of her brothers mill workers(NPS). Then in 1852 she established the first free public school in the town of Bordentown, New Jersey. Her school became a huge success In the town so much so that the town felt that a man would be better to handle how big it had grown rather than a woman(Clara Barton Museum). Barton was essentially fired from a job she started. From this came some of Barton’s inspiration to ensure she and all women got treated equal to men. In her words, “I may sometimes be willing to teach for nothing, but if paid at all, I shall never do a man’s work for less than a man’s pay”(Clara Barton Museum).

      After her replacement, Barton moved to Washington DC in 1854 where she worked as a clerk of a US patent office. She made the same pay as a man and at the time it was a big deal to make equal pay(PBS). Her boss of the time believed women should make equal pay no matter how mcuh the other men in the office disliked it. When the bosses of the office changed, Barton was demoted to copyist making half of her previous wage(Clara Barton Museum). In 1861 Abraham Lincoln took presidential office. Shortly after in April 12,1861 the civil war broke out.

       Once the war began many injured union soldiers came to or were sent to DC seeking shelter, safety, and medical aid.Across the street from Barton’s place of work was the capitol building which was turned into a makeshift hospital for wounded men. so many men floded the streets that even the US patent office, where Barton worked was used to house them(Clara Barton Museum). Clara Barton had no formal nurse training but her brother had received a head wound as a child and at only 11, she helped to nurse him back to health for two years(Clara Barton Museum)for the men, Barton brought as much as she could to help. She then started a drive to get some supplies from friends, family and the local community. She took this supplies to as many field hospitals as possible.

      After some time of volunteering Barton realized she could help more on the front lines. In early 1862 Clara Barton followed the union army for a few years(NPS). It was there that she was nicknamed “The Angel of the Battlefield”(Clara Barton Museum). She would work in the front lines, in the middle of the fights and even work at night. At night she would carry a lantern and like a beacon clothed in all white, the men would feel saved. This is how her nickname began. In January of 1865 she returned to DC. upon her return the president of the time, Abraham Lincoln, recognized her for the work she did and had a special job lined up. She selected as the General Correspondent for the Friends of Paroled Prisoners(NPS). Her job was to find missing soldiers and, if possible inform their families of their fate. On Barton’s final report in 1869, twenty two thousand soldiers were identified.

      After her presidential job Barton was constientally medically exahausted from all the years of work she did. Her doctors recommendd she go to europe away from her work and temptation to get a break. So in September 1869 she travelled to Geneva, Switzerland(NPS) . Instead of taking her much needed break clara found interest in the International Red Cross that, at the time, was based in Geneva.  She saw the impact of the first Red Cross all the good work they were doing. She stayed in Europe to help with as much war relief as she could. Then in October to 1873 returned to the United States where she eventually started the first United States red cross on May 21, of 1881(Red Cross). She started the precident that the organization would help with natural disasters in addition to wars. From its start multiple chapters formed across the United States. On March 16 of 1882 President Chester A. Arthur signed the Treaty of Geneva which set the standards of international law for humanitarian treatment during they war. It was also so the United States could Join the International Red Cross. Barton ran the Red Cross organization as president until 1904 at the age of 82(Red Cross). After her resignation she started the National First Aid Assocation of America. which was to promote first aid skills and later became part of the red cross.  At the age of 90 Barton died on April 12, 1912 in her home at the time in Glen Echo, Maryland (NPS). After her death the Red Cross continued to thrive and help others. Today it serves the same purposes that Barton dreamed it would. Countless billions have been helped to recover from natural disasters or national crisis, thanks to the help of the Red Cross.

Picture sources:

1. Portrait of Clara Barton, 1881. This image was used in the Red Cross Courier, May 15, 1931, page 295
   1. https://redcrosschat.org/2017/03/07/10-fun-facts-about-clara-barton/
2. Clara Barton’s school house in Bordentown, NJ c 1919. Courtesy of the Library of Congress
   1. http://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/bio/
3. US Patent office during civil war with soldiers laying on shelfs
   1. http://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/bio/
4. Office sign to Barton’s Missing soldiers office. Courtesy of the U.S. General Services Administration.
   1. http://www.clarabartonmuseum.org/bio/
5. Pamplet cover printed as following: “The Red Cross of the Geneva Convention. What It Is by Clara Barton. Washington, D.C. Rufus H. Darby, Steam Power Book and Job Printer, 432 Ninth Street. 1878.”
   1. https://www.nps.gov/clba/learn/historyculture/rcwhat.htm