The American Red Cross was founded by Clara Barton on this day in history, May 21, 1881.
Nurse Clarissa Harlowe “Clara” Barton was born on Christmas Day 1821 in North Oxford, Massachusetts, the American Red Cross website notes.
He spent his early career as a teacher before moving to Washington, DC to work at the United States Patent Office.
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At the time of the American Civil War, Barton changed her career once again and became a battlefield nurse, the American Red Cross said.
Barton worked in this intense form of nursing despite having no formal medical training, says the National Women's History Museum.
“She bravely provided nursing care and supplies to soldiers,” the American Red Cross said, “activities that ultimately defined her life and earned her the nickname Battlefield Angel.”
Clarissa Harlowe “Clara” Barton founded the American Red Cross on this day, May 21, 1881. (Getty Images)
At the end of the Civil War, Barton continued his work with the military and founded the Missing Soldiers' Bureau, the site said.
Their efforts in this effort resulted in more than 20,000 soldiers reconnecting with their families.
But it wasn't until four years after the American Civil War ended that Barton would discover what would become his life's work.
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In 1869 he traveled to Switzerland.
There he learned about “a European humanitarian effort to provide neutral aid to those wounded in combat” that was called the “Red Cross movement.”
“Inspired by that cause, Clara volunteered with the International Committee of the Red Cross, providing civil aid during the Franco-Prussian War,” the American Red Cross website notes.
Members of the American Red Cross Corps in a photograph taken around 1910. (Getty Images)
When she returned to the United States, Barton began a campaign to create an American Red Cross organization, the National Women's History Museum said.
This involved writing pamphlets, giving lectures, and meeting with then-President Rutherford B. Hayes.
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Barton's work reached a zenith when the American Red Cross was founded on May 21, 1881.
Barton was elected the first president of the American Red Cross.
The following year, the United States ratified the Geneva Convention of 1864, one of the goals of the American Red Cross, according to the National Archives website.
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“Within the points agreed upon by the representatives present [at the Geneva Convention] were aid to the wounded regardless of their nationality, the neutrality of medical workers and hospitals and the presence of a uniform flag in medical centers with a matching insignia on the arm to be worn by medical staff,” he said. the National Archive.
Barton was elected as the first president of the American Red Cross, a position she would hold until her retirement in 1904, according to the American Red Cross website.
Photograph of a Red Cross dispensary taken around 1914. (Getty Images)
The still-nascent Red Cross that Barton found in Switzerland was founded in Geneva in February 1863, says the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
In October 1863, “an international conference was convened to formalize the concept of national societies,” the site says.
At that conference, it was agreed that the symbol of a red cross on a white background would be the “standard emblem for identifying medical personnel on the battlefield,” the site said.
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In 1906, the Ottoman Empire adopted the use of a red crescent instead of a cross, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The “Red Crescent” symbol is still used today in predominantly Muslim countries.
Today, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is made up of “190 National Societies, the ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,” according to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement's website. International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
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Clara Barton never married and had no children. She had several nieces and nephews on whom she “lavished her attention,” according to ClaraBartonBirthplace.org.
Barton loved animals and his older brother taught him how to ride horses, something he enjoyed doing throughout his life, the site says.
He died at his home in Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912, it also notes.
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