CLARA BARTON: A LIFE OF COMPASSION & SERVICE

Biography
March 5 2015

To celebrate Women’s History Month and Red Cross Month, we’re taking
a look at the inspiring life of Clara Barton, the founder of the
American Red Cross, who made it her mission to serve humanity in
troubled spots around the world.

One of the world’s greatest humanitarians was born on Christmas
Day in 1821, in the town of North Oxford, Massachusetts. Clarissa
“Clara” Harlowe Barton was the youngest of five children born to Sarah
(Stone) and Captain Stephen Barton. A teacher, a nurse, a civil rights
activist and a suffragist, this founder of the American Red Cross
opened paths to the new field of volunteer service through the force
of her personal example. She dedicated her life to helping people by
“offering a hand up, not a handout.”

A Shy Student

Homeschooled by her family, Barton, a bit of a tomboy, suffered from
acute shyness as a child. She gained her first experience in nursing
when she was 11 years old: Her brother David became seriously ill
following an accident, and she cared for him for two years. She
then went on to attend a private boarding school. Though she kept
up academically, her reticence affected her health, and she returned
home. With encouragement from her parents, she overcame her shyness
and became a teacher. This pattern would repeat itself during her
lifetime, as she suffered from periods of severe depression, yet
always managed to rally when a crisis called for her services.

Clara Barton – Mini Biography (TV-PG; 03:00) Clara Barton’s many jobs
included teaching, working at the U.S. Parent Office, and caring for
soldiers during the Civil War. She is best remembered as the founder
of the American Red Cross.

A Gifted Teacher

While still a teenager, Barton passed the teacher’s exam and began
instructing classes in May 1838 in North Oxford. She enthralled her
students and refused to discipline them physically (even though that
was common practice at the time). Six years later, she opened her
own school.

In 1850, Barton enrolled at New York’s Clinton Liberal Institute to
further her own education. After a year of study, she moved with a
friend to Bordentown, New Jersey, where she enlisted support from
the local community to open a free public school. By the end of the
year, she had about 200 pupils. Her project was such a success that
the community built a new school. However, she was shocked that they
hired a man to run it–at twice her salary–so she resigned.

The earliest known photograph of Clara Barton, which was probably
taken in Clinton, New York in 1850 or 1851 while she was a student
at the Clinton Liberal Institute. She was about 29 years old. (Photo:
National Park Service)

A Patent Clerk and a Civil War Nurse

Barton’s next move was to Washington, D.C. where she became the first
female clerk at the U.S. Patent Office. But upon the outbreak of
the Civil War, she independently organized relief for the wounded,
often bringing her own supplies to front lines. She recognized the
need for an efficient organization apart from the War Department’s
bureaucracy to distribute food and medical supplies to the troops. She
began soliciting supplies from her friends, distributing them and
staying to nurse and nourish the wounded, often very close to the
actual fighting. In fact, while tending the wounded at the Battle of
Antietam, she worked so close to the battlefield that a bullet once
tore through her sleeve and killed the man she was treating.

By June of 1864, the army had put her in charge of diet and nursing at
X Corps. It was dubbed the “flying hospital” because of its frequent
moves to be close enough to the battle to help the wounded, but not
so close as to be overrun.

An Advocate for the Wounded and the Missing

On March 11, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Barton to
search for missing prisoners of war. With assistance from several
volunteers, including her sister Sally, Barton used her own money to
set up Friends of the Missing Men of the United States Army. They
put the name of every soldier for whom they received an inquiry
on their lists, which were organized by state and published in
local newspapers, displayed in post offices, and reviewed by various
organizations. Veterans seeing the list could then provide Barton with
information. She and her assistants received and answered more than
63,000 letters and identified over 22,000 missing men. Years later,
the Red Cross established a tracing service, which remains one of
the organization’s most valued activities today.

Clara Barton photographed by Mathew Brady in 1865 from the Civil War
period of her life. (Photo: National Archives/Wikiemedia Commons)

A Suffrage Supporter

In 1866, Barton went on a lecture tour throughout the Northeast and
Midwest to describe her Civil War experiences. During this time,
in November 1867, she met and befriended women’s suffrage leaders
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Although her own cause
took precedence, Barton aligned herself with the suffrage movement
and once hosted a party for 400 feminists. She also gave many lectures
in support of suffrage.

First President of the American Red Cross

Ordered to Europe by her doctor for a rest cure in 1869, Barton met
with the International Committee of the Red Cross. She participated
in relief efforts during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870-1871, but
was forced into temporary retirement by ill health in 1872. After
recovering, she campaigned to establish an American branch of the
Red Cross, despite government resistance due to fears of foreign
entanglements. The U.S. Senate finally ratified the Geneva Convention
in 1882 and formed the American Association of the Red Cross. Barton
became its president.

The newly formed organization sprang into action in the fall of 1881
when forest fires ripped through Michigan. It provided relief during
many other natural disasters and epidemics in the U.S., including
the Johnstown, PA, flood in 1889. Clara directed many of the relief
operations herself. The American Red Cross also provided international
relief, including helping victims of the Russian famine of 1892 and
providing relief to Armenians living in Turkish-controlled Armenia
in 1896.

Clara Barton working in the National Headquarters office of the
American Red Cross in Glen Echo, Maryland in 1902. (Photo: National
Park Service)

In 1898, at age 76, Barton traveled with nurses to Cuba during the
Spanish-American War to nurse the wounded and provide supplies and
food. In 1900, after several contentious attempts, the U.S. Congress
granted the American Red Cross a charter, making the independent,
non-profit organization responsible for fulfilling the provisions of
the Geneva Conventions, providing family and other support to the U.S.

military, and providing a system for disaster relief. However, Barton’s
unwillingness to delegate responsibility had created dissent within the
ranks of the Red Cross and, in 1904, she resigned from the organization
she had founded and built.

Rather than retire, in 1905, Barton established the National First Aid
Association of America, which emphasized basic first aid instruction
and emergency preparedness, and served as its honorary president for
five years. She published several books about the beginnings of the
American Red Cross and the global Red Cross network. She died on April
12, 1912, at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland. She was 90 years old.

Barton’s family donated her papers and awards, along with numerous
mementoes, to the Library of Congress. The National Park Service
manages what is now the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Glen
Echo. Barton’s legacy to the nation–service to humanity–is reflected
in the services provided daily by the employees and volunteers of
the American Red Cross throughout the nation and in troubled spots
around the world.