Photo courtesy the Clara Barton National Historic Site.

Known For: Founder of the American Red Cross
Dates: C.E.: 1821 - 1912
Faith: Christianity
Country: United States

About

Born in North Oxford, Massachusetts in 1821, Clara Barton grew up on the family farm as the youngest of five children and was educated primarily by her older brothers and sisters. Though a timid child, she excelled early on, and first showed a natural talent for nursing at age 11 when she cared for her brother David during a serious illness.

At age 17 Barton began teaching in Massachusetts, and established her own school six years later. After a decade of teaching she enrolled in writing and language studies at the Liberal Institute in Clinton, NY. Next she started a free school in New Jersey, whose numbers flourished under her direction, yet the school board hired a man instead of Barton to officially head the school. As a result, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked as a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office- the first woman to hold a significant clerk position for the federal government.

When the Civil War broke out, Barton refused her salary from the government and focused on helping soldiers on the front lines. Military and civil officials declined her help at first, since women had traditionally not been permitted in hospitals, camps, or on the battlefield. Over time, she gained their confidence and began collecting supplies from around the country, known for her tireless efforts as the “Angel of the Battlefield.” 

Officially named superintendent of Union nurses in 1864, she began acquiring camp and hospital supplies, and the support of assistants and military transportation for her work. Treating patients solely on the front, she lived through the traumatic horrors of war on sixteen battlefields.

Following the war, President Abraham Lincoln allowed her to launch a letter writing campaign through the Office of Correspondence in the quest for missing soldiers. She would continue to support this cause later throughout her life.

Traveling to Europe in 1869, Barton learned about and experienced the operations of the Red Cross as summarized in the Treaty of Geneva, which twelve countries had signed while the US had not. Upon returning to the States, she rallied for the US to sign and became determined to establish the practice. Barton supplemented the original outline of the Red Cross with the element of aiding in any great natural disaster, which labeled the US as “Good Samaritan of Nations.” In 1882, the US finally signed the Geneva Agreement.

As President of the American National Red Cross for twenty-two years, Barton modified its structure to match the needs of the country during both wartime and times of peace. Before its first wartime involvement in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the Red Cross aided in many non-war crises, including the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers in 1882 and 1884, the Texas famine of 1886, the Florida yellow fever epidemic in 1887, an earthquake in Illinois in 1888, and the 1889 Johnstown, Pennsylvania disaster/flood. Other countries applauded this and, acknowledging the need for this kind of peacetime support, the Geneva Convention of 1884 passed the “American Amendment” to add this component.

Additionally, Barton actively joined in the suffragist movement to fight for women’s rights, working with such front runners as Susan B. Anthony and Lucy Stone.

Awarded the Iron Cross, the Cross of Imperial Russia, and the International Red Cross Medal, Barton lastly founded the National First Aid Society in 1904. She retired as Red Cross President at age 83 and spent her last years in Glen Echo, Maryland where she died in 1821.