TBT: 139 Years Ago, Clara Barton Founded the American Red Cross

TBT: Super Awesome People™ in History.

On May 21, 1881, Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American National Red Cross, “an organization established to provide humanitarian aid to victims of wars and natural disasters in congruence with the International Red Cross.”

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Clara Barton, born in 1821, was one of the most famous nurses in history (read more about awesome nurses here). During the American Civil War she brought much-needed supplies to Union soldiers, ultimately distributing provisions at every major battlefield in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina, including Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Antietam, and Fredericksburg.

In addition to providing supplies, Barton served food, cleaned field hospitals, and tended to wounded soldiers. She became known as the “Angel of the Battlefield” and the “Florence Nightingale of America”. In 1864, Union General Benjamin Butler appointed Barton as the “lady in charge” of the hospitals of the Army of the James, even though she had no formal medical training. After the war she ran the Office of Missing Soldiers and helped find, identify, and properly bury thousands of missing men.

In 1869, Barton traveled to Europe and learned of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), established in 1863 in Geneva, Switzerland. The ICRC’s mission is to help people affected by conflict and armed violence while promoting the laws that protect victims of war. Barton was so impressed with the ICRC she wanted the U.S. government to officially recognize the Geneva Convention of 1864 and also establish an American branch of the Red Cross.

After years of effort, Barton was able to convince the President Chester Arthur’s administration to establish an American Red Cross (ARC) that would help more than just victims of war, but would also respond to natural disasters. On May 21, 1881, the American National Red Cross was formed and officially joined the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1882.

While serving as the American Red Cross president from 1881-1904, Barton oversaw a number of relief efforts, including aiding victims of Michigan forest fires in 1881, responding to the Johnstown, PA, flood in 1889, aiding homeless victims of the 1893 Sea Islands hurricane in South Carolina, bringing relief to victims of the Hamidian massacres in 1896, providing supplies to victims of the Spanish-American War in 1898, and responding to the devastation of the Galveston, TX hurricane in 1900.

Read More About Clara Barton

• Clara Barton (1821-1912) (National Women’s History Museum)
• Founder Clara Barton (American Red Cross)
• Clara Barton (Wikipedia.org)
• Clara Barton Biography (Biography.com)
• American Red Cross Founded (This Day in History, History.com)
• Clara Barton’s Missing Soldiers Office (Clarabartonmuseum.org)

Clara Barton died in 1912 at age 90, but her legacy lives on in the 139 years (and counting!) that the American Red Cross has operated in the United States and abroad. Find out more about how the American Red Cross is helping people during COVID-19, and if you are able, donate blood or plasma! The ARC had to cancel many regularly scheduled blood drives, and they are in need of new donors to ensure a stable blood supply during the ongoing pandemic.