Clara Barton, the Civil War nurse who founded the American Red Cross

Photo: Mathew Benjamin Brady, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born on Christmas Day 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts. She taught school for years and opened a free public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. She later became one of the first women to work as a clerk at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington.

On the battlefield

When the Civil War began, Barton started collecting bandages, food and supplies for soldiers. She then brought them to the front herself, at Antietam, Fredericksburg and other battles. Soldiers called her the “Angel of the Battlefield.”

After the war she ran an office that helped families find missing soldiers. It identified thousands of men.

The Red Cross

While in Europe, Barton saw the International Red Cross at work during the Franco-Prussian War. Back home she pushed the United States to sign the Geneva Convention. In 1881 she founded the American Red Cross, and the U.S. ratified the treaty in 1882.

She led the organization for more than two decades, including relief work after the 1889 Johnstown Flood. She resigned in 1904 amid criticism of her management.

Barton died in 1912 at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland. The house is now a National Historic Site.