Who Is Clara Barton's Life And Accomplishments

Clara Barton’s life, like that of many other female reformers, was filled with hardships, victories, and accomplishments. She was a patent clerk, a nurse, the founder of the American Red Cross Association, and a teacher. Her achievements in the past have greatly affected the present and the future.

During the early stages of her life, she was influenced by events that would later decide her future. She was born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford, Massachusetts and raised by Captain Stephen Barton and Sarah Stone Barton, her parents. Her awareness of soldiers in need was most likely raised through her father’s teachings. He had taught her the importance and need for medical supplies and other necessities. Barton was shy as a child, being the youngest

Working as a recording clerk in washington D.C., she received a salary of 1,400 dollars annually as did her male co-workers. She was removed from a lowered position by a “Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland, who opposed women working in government” as stated by the NWHM. After returning in 1860, however, she quit her job the following year to bring supplies to union soldiers in need. She had found her calling. Taking a step further, she became an independent nurse and cared for wounded soldiers like she had for her brother. “After the war ended in 1865, Clara Barton worked for the War Department, helping to either reunite missing soldiers and their families or find out more about those who were missing” conforming to biography.com. Achieving all of that, being a woman during that time period, was extremely difficult, yet she persisted and began to educate others about her experience during the war. While in Europe, she worked with the International Red Cross, the relief organization in which she founded an American branch for and became the first president of. This became known as the American Red Cross Association that presently helps soldiers. In 1904, she stepped down from the American Red Cross but stayed active in her speeches and through her book, The Story of my Childhood. She died in her Maryland home on April 12, 1921 soon after the