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Clara Barton Timeline

Clarissa Harlowe Barton is born on Christmas Day in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Becomes a teacher. Founds a school for the workers of her brother's mill. Becomes the first woman to work in the U.S. Patent Office. The Civil War breaks out. After the Battle of Bull Run, she establishes an agency to distribute supplies to soldiers. She also nurses soldiers on the battlefields and is nicknamed the "Angel of the Battlefield." She travels behind the lines and nurses men of both the North and South during the bloody sieges of Petersburg and Richmond. Union General Benjamin Butler names her "lady in charge" of nurses for the Army of the James. President Abraham Lincoln entrusts her with the search for Union Army men missing in action. She founds a bureau to search for the missing men and eventually finds information on 30,000 men. Clara travels to Switzerland for a rest after doctors recommend she take a break. While in Europe, she becomes involved with the International Red Cross during the Franco-Prussian War. Returns to the United States. International Red Cross officials ask her to start the American Red Cross. During the same year, she organizes aid efforts in the Florida yellow fever epidemic. She forms the first branch of the American Red Cross and serves as its president. Clara urges the United States to ratify the Geneva Convention. The Geneva Convention is ratified by Congress. Her brother, David Barton, dies. Helps with relief efforts after the devastating flood in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Travels to Russia to work in the relief effort during the Russian famine. Writes a poem entitled "The Women Who Went to the Field." A hurricane hits Georgia, the Sea Islands, South and North Carolina, and Virginia. Clara directs the "Sea Island Relief" efforts for ten months after the hurricane. Sails in a cargo ship from Cuba to Turkey to aid the victims of the Armenian Massacre. . The National Society of the Spanish War names her Honorary President, but she resigns after Susan B. Anthony tells her the society does not accept African-Americans. Publishes a book entitled The Red Cross in Peace and War. A hurricane and tidal wave hit Galveston, Texas. Barton directs the relief effort. Publishes a book entitled A Story of the Red Cross: Glimpses of Field Work. Clara resigns from her job as president of the Red Cross. Clara organizes the National First Aid Association of America. Clara writes The Story of My Childhood. Clara dies in Glen Echo, Maryland and is buried in a family plot in Oxford, Massachusetts.