Clara Barton House

Clara Barton National Historic Site
5801 Oxford Road
Glen Echo, MD 20812
(301) 320-1410

A young man or woman can find themself blessed with a great gift and burdened by true handicap. The gift is not to their credit and they made no request to be handicapped; the challenge is to make a unique contribution given ones particular set of circumstances. Clara Barton made of her time in this world a contribution that can be envied, both in terms of the quantity of lives that were affected, and in terms of the quality of the involvement.

As a child Clara was known for being excessively timid, and as a remedy it was recommended that she become a school teacher. Held responsible for the success of her students, while receiving encouragement from family and friends, she acquired leadership skills. Combined with a talent and passion for caring for others, Clara Barton was on her way to an internationally recognized career of accomplishment in the field of disaster relief.

After the Civil War broke out she was active in soliciting donations of supplies for Union soldiers, storing donations in her in Washington D.C. home. Later she obtained permission to travel to the front in order to nurse the wounded and dying, and in 1864 she was appointed as the “lady in charge” of the hospitals for the Union’s Army of the James River. After the war ended, she initiated a project to locate missing soldiers. With a note of endorsement from President Abraham Lincoln, this developed into a nationwide campaign. Lists of names were published in newspapers and letters were exchanged with soldiers’ families. As many as 20,000 names of the missing were successfully traced due to this effort.

In 1870, while Clara Barton was overseas, she became involved with the International Red Cross and its humanitarian work during the Franco-Prussian War. When she returned to the United States she promoted the establishment of the Red Cross at home. Great perseverance paid off in 1882, when the U.S. Senate ratified the Treaty of Geneva, and the American Red Cross was officially chartered. Barton served as president of the American Red Cross from 1881 to 1904, directing relief, garnering supplies, and expanding the organization. Her greatest innovation was to engage the Red Cross in peacetime and natural disaster aid, with more than 18 relief efforts to her credit.

The Clara Barton National Historic Site honors the life and work of this outstanding American humanitarian. This house was Barton’s home for the last 15 years of her life. Built in 1891, it was first used as a warehouse for Red Cross disaster relief supplies. As of 1897 Baron made it her home and the headquarters for the American Red Cross.

The National Park Service has restored eleven rooms, including the Red Cross offices, the parlors and Barton’s bedroom. Guides lead tourists through the three levels, emphasizing Barton’s use of her unusual home as both a private residence and a national headquarters. I stopped by on a tour through the Washington – Baltimore region a few days ago. This visit made a powerful impression on me, so I decided to write about this house before reporting on the remaining stops on the journey.

The large frame house was modeled on a Johnstown, Pennsylvania relief shelter built by the Red Cross in the wake of the Johnstown Flood of 1889. The house was partially constructed from lumber salvaged from emergency buildings built by the Red Cross as part of the relief effort. The design features flanking stone towers with pointed roofs, yet the house is sparely detailed and furnished for utility. The house contains 36 rooms and 38 closets, with three tiers of rooms facing a central gallery lighted by colored glass windows.

Little distinction was made between Barton’s work and her personal life; the house served as a personal home and as the American Red Cross headquarters.

Closets throughout the house stored supplies. Closet doorways were designed so as not to be easily noticeable; in the main hallway they resembled paneled walls. If Clara Barton were there she would have made sure that I didn’t move when I took this photograph.

Staff members were encouraged to live here; they lived either in fully furnished bedrooms or in storage rooms containing folding beds or cots.