Superheroes of history — 2: Clara Barton

By DAVID KITTREDGE
Renaissance Redneck
After the American Civil War, Clara Barton went on a three-year lecture tour throughout the United States, and it was at this time that she met Susan B. Anthony, the founder of the American Equal Rights Association, which fought for the equal rights of women and African Americans, and Frederick Douglass, who was a civil rights activist. These three stalwarts of freedom became intertwined in the campaign for justice and freedom for blacks and women, who at this time were deemed to be second-class citizens and not permitted to vote in governmental elections.

Three years into her lecture tour Barton was overcome with exhaustion, and at her doctor’s behest that she change her routine, she traveled to Europe on vacation. In 1869, while in Geneva, Switzerland, Barton was introduced to a Dr. Louis Appia, who with Jean-Henri Dunant founded the International Red Cross. She was asked by Dr. Appia to establish an American chapter of the Red Cross and to acquire patrons to fund the new organization. 

A year later, while Barton was still in Europe, the Franco-Prussian War began. She assisted Princess Louise of Prussia in setting up military hospitals with the help of the International Red Cross. Barton also oversaw the distribution of supplies to the poor and needy citizens of Strasbourg and Paris who had been affected by the conflagration. At war’s end she received medals of valor to include the Prussian Iron Cross.

In 1873, she returned to the United States and endeavored to set up and fund the American Red Cross. In 1878 Barton met with President Rutherford B. Hayes, who in his shortsightedness declared that the Red Cross was not needed, because America would never again face a conflict as great as the Civil War, and she was denied the support of the federal government. Barton later met with President Chester Arthur and widened her argument for government support of the Red Cross with the idea that such an organization could also give relief to citizens during times of natural disasters such as floods, forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes, and President Arthur agreed to help.

Clara became president of the American Red Cross and held its first official meeting in her home in Washington, D.C., on May 21, 1881. She and her organization provided humanitarian aid during the Spanish-American War in 1898, the Johnstown Flood in 1889, and the Galveston hurricane in 1900.

In 1897 she traveled to Turkey and helped to set up a Red Cross headquarters to give aid to those affected by the Armenian Massacre, one of the worst atrocities in history, which resulted in an estimated 300,000 casualties and in 50,000 orphaned children.

In 1904, at the age of 83, Clara Barton was forced to step down from her office as head of the Red Cross by a cadre of male scientists, who claimed her ideals of humanitarianism to be outdated and inefficient in the running of such a large organization. 

After her ouster from the Red Cross, Barton started another organization, the National First Aid Society, which set up local first aid programs throughout the United States. This organization was eventually joined with the American Red Cross.

Throughout her life of service, Barton faced seemingly insurmountable tasks; the teaching of 600 students with the help of only one other teacher, helping to write over 40,000 hand written letters to the love ones of soldiers, providing aid to thousands injured and destitute people, and through all this she was personally targeted by resentful, biased or shortsighted political foes. Still she endured. 

Clara Barton died on April 12, 1912 at age 90.

Another hero of history that should be mentioned is Jean-Henri Dunant a Swiss businessman and one of the co-founders of the International Red Cross who encouraged Clara Barton to found the American Red Cross. Dunant, while on a business trip in northern Italy in 1859, observed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino that left 23,000 dead and wounded on the battlefield. It was the final battle in the second war for Italian independence. Dunant immediately organized the townsfolk in giving aid to the injured soldiers, the procurement of medical supplies and the erection of temporary hospitals. Dunant’s experience in northern Italy compelled him to create the International Red Cross, which led to the first Geneva Convention meeting in 1864. Dunant also formulated the organization’s basic tenet, which is to provide humanitarian aid during times of war without regard to allegiances. For his endeavors Dunant received the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901.