Clara Barton (Clarissa Harlowe Barton)

1821-1912

Image of Clara Barton
Clara Barton, Neil, p. 260.
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Born in Oxford, Massachusetts on Christmas Day, 1821. From 1836 until 1854 she taught school in Massachusetts and New Jersey. In 1854 she changed her career and moved to Washington, D.C. to become a clerk in the U.S. Patent Office.

When the Civil War broke out, she decided to contribute to the war effort by gathering and distributing needed supplies to wounded soldiers. At war's end, she compiled records to assist in the identification of missing troops.

Clara Barton seated on the porch
Miss Clara Barton seated on the porch of a Cuban villa with her colleague Dr. Cottrell.
Photographic History of the Spanish-American War, p. 288.
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She was in Europe when the Franco-Prussian War began in 1870 and again she devoted herself to helping the wounded. At this time she became associated with the International Red Cross. Upon her return to the United States in 1873 she began a campaign to create a branch of that organization in her home country. In 1881-1882 she was elected the first president of the newly-formed American Red Cross and convinced the U.S. government to accept the 1864 Geneva convention about treatment of enemy prisoners. She was also the first to amend the charter of her new organization to allow it to provide relief for all disasters, both natural and political.

She directed relief efforts to cope with disasters throughout the 1880's and 1890's. Her work in the Spanish-American war was often tarnished by splits in the organization she founded and the refusal of many generals to permit her access to the wounded. Many criticized her because of her age and authoritarian behavior. President McKinley, a devoted admirer of Barton and the American Red Cross, permitted the incorporation of the society in 1900.


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