Welcome to this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga where we journey through the history of nursing education using stories that connect the past to the present and then our future as we reimagine our teaching and learning. In this episode, we celebrate the December birthday of Clarissa "Clara" Barton, founder of the American Red Cross. Clara was born on December 25, 1821 in Oxford,
Massachusetts. The youngest of five children, she grew up on a farm - her father was a very successful farmer. Her entre into nursing started with the care of her brother David who became seriously ill after falling from the roof of the family barn. The care and assistance she provided became the foundation of her life's work. In her formative years, Clara
was known to be considerably shy. Her parents decided to have Clara work with the phrenologist to assist her with her social development. Encouragement from both her parents and her phrenologist moved her toward teaching. She started teaching at the age of 18 and when she was 24 she founded a school for children whose
parents worked at her brother's mill. Clara was passionate in her efforts to help those in need and went on to establish the first free school in Bordentown, New Jersey. However, when she discovered that the school had hired a man receiving twice her salary she resigned. She is quoted as saying that she would never work for less than a man. Clara moved on to Washington, DC and became the first woman to be appointed to the post of a recording clerk for the
U.S. Patent Office, where she was paid an annual salary that was the same as her male colleagues. Unfortunately, she would lose this role because of government officials disagreeing about women serving in government. The position was given to a man, her role was reduced, and so was her salary. When the Civil War began in 1861, Clara focused her energy on her passion of helping others and took it upon herself to bring supplies to Union soldiers, including soldiers serving in the
6th Massachusetts Infantry. Her brother David, whom she had cared for earlier in his life, was a quartermaster for the Union Army. With her passion for helping others, she received ongoing permission to transport supplies during the Civil War and was said to have been to every major battlefield in Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. In addition to transporting supplies, she took care of the wounded soldiers and became known as the "angel of the battlefield."
Her tenacity for helping those less fortunate continued and she looked for opportunities to provide relief and aid during disasters and conflicts. While Clara was referred to as a nurse, she did not have formal training. The civil war provided ample opportunity for wartime volunteers and while it was said that respectable women could not be seen in a military hospital, there were some women who challenged this status quo. This was especially true in the north where women
like Clara assisted in many ways. Clara was known to be a genius with supply and distribution and in the development of systems to identify the missing and dead and reuniting loved ones. She acknowledged that she only actually provided nursing services for about six months of the Civil War, crediting other women who she felt had provided so much more. After the war ended, she provided testimony to Congress about
her wartime experiences. She was sought after for lectures and speeches about her efforts and her experiences during the war. However, Claira was injured during the war and sought respite in Europe to heal. While she was in Switzerland ,she learned about the International Red Cross. This organization had been established in Geneva in 1864. When she returned to the U.S., she put together a campaign for the creation of an American branch
of the International Red Cross. She was able to meet with President Rutherford Hayes and following that meeting, the American Association of the Red Cross was formed on May 21, 1881. Clara Barton would become their first president in June of that year. The American Association of the Red Cross joined the International Red Cross in 1882. Clara served the Red Cross until 1904 and left amid rumored internal power struggles and claims of financial mismanagement.
Clara was said to be an autocratic leader, yet she never took salary for her work within the organization and as she had done during other times in her life, she would use her own personal funds to support relief efforts. After leaving the American Red Cross, Clara traveled and lectured. She wrote book, "The Story of my Childhood," which was published in 1907. She died at her home in Glen Echo, Maryland
on April 12, 1912. While clara was not educated as a nurse, she understood the importance of aid and in helping those who were homeless, poor, or in need of comfort and relief from disaster or war. Thanks to her efforts to establish the American Red Cross, today they still serve millions of Americans across the country. Their mission continues to alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
Volunteers, both nurses and the general public, continue in their efforts to bring healing and comfort to many in need. Their ongoing vision to turn compassion into action. And so the saga continues and may our saga continue as we bring to a close this episode of Nursing EDge Unscripted Saga. Thank you for joining us