Clara Barton | OtterKnow Kids Encyclopedia

Who Was Clara Barton?

Clara Barton was an American nurse, teacher, and humanitarian who founded the American Red Cross. She was born on December 25, 1821, in North Oxford, Massachusetts, the youngest of five children. As a young girl, Clara was shy but very determined, and she learned to care for others by nursing her brother David back to health after a serious injury. She became a teacher at age 17 and later opened one of the first free public schools in New Jersey. Clara lived to be 90 years old, passing away in 1912 after a lifetime of helping others.

The Angel of the Battlefield

During the Civil War, Clara Barton earned the nickname “the Angel of the Battlefield” for her brave work helping wounded soldiers. Rather than staying behind at hospitals far from the fighting, she drove supply wagons directly to the front lines, where the need was greatest. She organized donations of bandages, food, and medicine, and she personally nursed soldiers from both the Union and Confederate sides. At the Battle of Antietam, a bullet tore through her sleeve while she was tending to a wounded man. After the war, she led a project to identify and mark the graves of nearly 13,000 soldiers who had died at the Andersonville prison camp.

Breaking New Ground

Clara Barton was a trailblazer for women in many ways. She became one of the first women to hold a professional government job when she was hired as a clerk at the United States Patent Office in Washington, D.C. At a time when women were rarely given positions of authority, she earned the same pay as her male coworkers. After the Civil War, she traveled to Europe, where she learned about the International Red Cross and the Geneva Convention, a set of rules to protect wounded soldiers during wartime. She returned home determined to bring those ideas to the United States.

Founding the American Red Cross

In 1881, Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross and served as its president for over twenty years. She successfully lobbied the United States government to sign the Geneva Convention, which committed the country to treating wounded soldiers humanely. Under her leadership, the Red Cross expanded its mission beyond war to include helping people during natural disasters. She directed major relief efforts after the Johnstown Flood in Pennsylvania in 1889 and the devastating Galveston Hurricane in Texas in 1900. Today, the American Red Cross continues to help millions of people every year, carrying on the work Clara Barton started.