Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton
Clarissa “Clara” Harlowe Barton (1821–1912) was the founder of the American Red Cross and served as its president from 1881–1904. She was also among the first to organize the search for soldiers missing in action or killed.
Born in Oxford, Massachusetts, she was educated at the Liberal Institute in Clinton, New York (teacher’s certificate, 1839). Her knowledge of nursing was first gained by caring for her brother after he suffered a serious fall. While teaching in New Jersey, she opened the first free school in Bordentown with only six pupils, but by the end of the year it was serving six hundred students.
From 1854–1857, and again in 1860, she was employed by the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C.—the first federal clerkship held by a woman. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Barton organized efforts to recover soldiers’ lost baggage and gather medicine and supplies for troops wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run. She gained permission to cross battle lines to deliver supplies, search for missing soldiers, and care for the wounded. Barton continued this work throughout the war, traveling with the army as far south as Charleston, S.C. She was formally appointed superintendent of nurses for the Army of the James in June 1864, and in 1865, at the request of President Abraham Lincoln, she set up a bureau of records to aid in the search for missing men.
After the war Barton was involved in the establishment of the first national cemetery. In 1869, Barton traveled to Switzerland to recover from poor health. While in Europe she joined relief efforts for victims of the Franco-Prussian War. In recognition of her work, she received the Golden Cross of Baden and the Prussian Iron Cross. Her work with war victims brought her into contact with the International Red Cross, whose president asked Barton to deliver an official invitation to the President of the United States to endorse the Geneva Convention. In 1881, she organized the American Association of the Red Cross, later renamed the American National Red Cross in 1893, and served as its president until 1904.
She wrote the American amendment to the Red Cross constitution, expanding relief efforts beyond wartime to include aid during famines, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, and epidemics. She was affectionately known as the “angel of the battlefield” for her life’s work. Following her retirement from the Red Cross, she established the National First Aid Association in 1905 to teach basic first aid and emergency preparedness. Barton wrote several books, including History of the Red Cross (1882), The Red Cross in Peace and War (1899), and The Story of My Childhood (1907).