Born in 1821, Clara Barton's first career was as a teacher and principal. She opened the first free school in New Jersey and in her first year as principal, her student population grew from 6 to 600. After the first year, the school board felt the school would be better run by a man and she was demoted to Vice Principal. Feeling very frustrated, she quit her job and moved to Washington DC where she started working for the US Patent office and making her the first woman to receive a substantial clerkship for the federal government and earn a salary equal to that of her male counterparts. 3 years later however, after political opposition to women working for the government, her job was eliminated. Shortly after being dismissed, she returned to a lesser job for the government and after a trainload of Union soldiers was mobbed by the Confederates, she tended to their injuries and created an agency to obtain and distribute supplies to wounded soldiers. From there she received permission and was the first woman to travel to the front lines of the battlefields to tend to soldiers. She was almost killed when a bullet went through the sleeve of her dress, missing her but killing the soldier she was tending to. She was placed in charge of the hospitals for the Union Armies.
After the war she formed the Office of Missing Soldiers helping identify and mark nearly 13,000 soldier's graves. She was part of the women's suffrage movement and activist for black civil rights. She travelled to Europe in 1869 to assist with the Franco-Prussian War and that's where she learned about the Red Cross. Upon her return to the United States in 1873, she began the push to join the International Red Cross by creating the American Red Cross but she was denied because the government believed there would never be a need as we would never be in another war. On May 21, 1881, the American Red Cross was formed after Barton included natural disaster relief to the mission of the organization. Over the next several decades, Barton travelled all across the country providing aide to victims of various floods, fires, and droughts, including a fire in Milwaukee, WI in the 1890's.
In 1891, in the hopes that the American Red Cross would locate their headquarters in MD, land and free labor was given to Clara Barton as well as the ability to design the building, thus the Clara Barton House was built.
(This is the Clara Barton House today)
The house has 15 bedrooms, all guests were allowed to stay for free but were expected to work for their room and board. If they weren't assisting the Red Cross efforts then they were cooking and cleaning.
(The house has three levels, this is looking up from the foyer)
(After the house was built, Barton removed many of the wall panels to create closets to store supplies)
(This is the piano room that is joined to the front sitting room, below...)
(This is the front sitting room)
(This is the dining room)
(The doors leading into the main office area of the home)
(Part of the office)
(One of the bedrooms)
(A second bedroom with a sits bath on the right side next to the mirror)
(Clara's personal sitting room where she wrote at least 70 letters a week)
(Clara's bedroom and the bed where she died of pneumonia on April 12, 1912 at the age of 90)
(These original windows are position on the second level at the front of the house)
(This is our group! I'm in the back, third from the right)
(This is my unit with John Mayer, he's the tall one in the middle and I'm just to the right of him...a better picture might surface later, if one does, I'll post it but this is all I have for now)
In the last couple of weeks Kevin Bacon, Wanda Sykes, Wee-Man (again), now John Mayer, and the President and First Lady have all visited our unit, I had no idea so many people would come by. I was only working when John Mayer visited but who knows who else will show up. I'll be sure to post when they do!
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