Biography of Clara Barton

The biography of Clara Barton (whose full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton) cannot be written without also writing in some measure the history of the American Red Cross as well as that of the history of nursing. This paper examines the work of this founder of the American Red Cross, looking at both her own life and especially at her work during the major battles of the American Civil War. In order to set her work in the proper historical framework, it also provides a very brief overview of the history of nursing as a profession, a profession with which she is - along with Florence Nightingale - responsible in many ways for creating in its contemporary form and at the American Red Cross, of which Barton is the founder.

Barton, born in 1821 and dying in 1912, dedicated her life to humanitarian causes, of which the Red Cross was perhaps the single most noteworthy example. Born in Oxford, Massachusetts, and educated mostly at home, chiefly by her two brothers and two sisters, she became first a teacher and the founder of various free schools in New Jersey.

Her later success could not easily have been predicted from her early childhood, when she was an almost unnaturally shy child, timid and afraid of strangers and speaking with a lisp that made her even shier. She might not have been able to achieve what she did without the constant encouragement of her large family and without an incident that happened when she was nine years old. That year her brother David fell when he was wor

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ications, salves, and painkillers. They eagerly accepted the supplies she had brought. Rushing from one wounded solider to another, Barton cleaned wounds, applied oils and ointments, wrapped injuries in bandages, and comforted wounded and weary men. She created the most nutritious meal possible with available supplies - bowls of army biscuits crushed and mixed with wine, water, and brown sugar. She gave this out to those who could accept it; she fed it to those who could not feed themselves (Whitelaw, 1997, pp. 8-9). And perhaps Barton's most famous act of the war occurred during one of its most infamous battles, that of Antietam, when she bent over a wounded soldier to hive him water. A bullet tore through her sleeve and struck the soldier, who died. She went to the next living soldier to see how she could help him (Williams, 1941, p. 79). Barton's work during the Civil War was not only on the battlefield. She also helped raised money and public awareness when she felt that this would do the most good. After the Battle of Spottsylvania, in May 1864, and before Fredericksburg she began to try to better the lives of Union soldiers by helping to organize relief and supplies. She had seen first hand and many times how "the unspeakabl

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