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CLARA BARTON.
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Examines life & work of founder of the American Red Cross & her legacy.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines life & work of founder of the American Red Cross & her legacy.
Paper Introduction:
The biography of Clara Barton (whose full name was Clarissa Harlowe Barton) cannot be written without also writing in some measure the history of the American Red Cross as well as that of the history of nursing. This paper examines the work of this founder of the American Red Cross, looking at both her own life and especially at her work during the major battles of the American Civil War. In order to set her work in the proper historical framework, it also provides a very brief overview of the history of nursing as a profession, a profession with which she is – along with Florence Nightingale – responsible in many ways for creating in its contemporary form and at the American Red Cross, of which Barton is the founder.
Barton, born in 1821 and dying in 1912, dedicated her life to humanitarian causes, of which the Red Cross was perhaps the singl
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"Americaunderstands but vaguely the steps necessary to gather, send and bestowgifts" (Williams, 1941, p. 23 ). Clara Barton: Civil War nurse. The nursing and health services program enrolls registered nurses toserve in disasters, sponsors classes in home nursing and preparation forparenthood, works in the blood services program, and assists in otherhealth services provided for communities. (1966). I may be compelled to face danger. Between 1869 and 1873 Barton lived in Europe, where she helpedestablish hospitals during the Franco-Prussian War (187 -1871) and washonored with Germany's Iron Cross for outstanding military service. 79). Thispaper examines the work of this founder of the American Red Cross, lookingat both her own life and especially at her work during the major battles ofthe American Civil War. Williams, B.C. (Thissymbol was later modified in non-Christian countries.) The principlesenunciated in the first Geneva Convention were subsequently revised andamended at conferences held in 19 6, 1929, and 1949. In order to set her work in the proper historicalframework, it also provides a very brief overview of the history of nursingas a profession, a profession with which she is - along with FlorenceNightingale - responsible in many ways for creating in its contemporaryform and at the American Red Cross, of which Barton is the founder. It is essentialto look not only at the particular work she did at specific Civil Warbattles but to look overall at her record and how it shaped the way modernwars are fought and modern soldiers and their families (and other civiliansaffected by war) are cared for if one is to appreciate Barton's role inhistory. The connections between such actions and her later work with theAmerican Red Cross are clearly directly related to each other. Oates, S. MorristownNJ: Silver Burdett. In the United States, the Spanish-American War and, later, World War I established the need for more nursesin both military and civilian life. Barton's work was essential in providing a role for women and femaleauxiliary medical services that was as important as the role traditionallyheld by male physicians. It is no accident that both she and Nightingaleperformed some of their most important work during wartime, a historicalmoment when women are often given greater autonomy and power because menare engaged in combat. Although this paper focuses on the work that Barton performed duringthe Civil War, it should at least be mentioned that this was hardly theonly field of conflict on which she won honor. Barton's Legacy in Establishing the American Red Cross The American Red Cross, officially titled the American National RedCross), was first chartered and first chartered by Congress in 19 . Fishwick, M. As a result,those who provided nursing care were commonly persons who had beenimprisoned for drunkenness or who could not find work elsewhere. During the Civil War, she treated bothConfederate and Union soldiers equally and made no distinction betweenblack and white soldiers. Barton took over the task of treatingDavid, several times a day lifting a slimy black leech from a glass jar andapplying it to her brother's neck until it became so bloated with bloodthat it lost its grip and fell back into a jar of water. They eagerly accepted the supplies she had brought. She had seen firsthand and many times how "the unspeakable destitution and suffering of thewounded were augmented by officers in immediate command" (Williams, 1941,p. Early in the Civil War, for example, she wrote to her father: We are ready to bind the wounds or to bear them of our own, if necessary. Five Swiss citizensformed a committee and issued a call for an international conference, whichwas held in Geneva in October 1863 and was attended by delegates from 16nations. Asecond charter, still in force, was granted in 19 5. During the depression of the 193 s, many nurses were unemployed, andthe number of schools declined. That others with similar experiences should have feltthe need for an institution like the Red Cross is not surprising.Initiative for founding the Red Cross came from the 19th-century Swissphilanthropist Jean Henri Dunant. Springfield, NJ:Enslow Publishers. Then she had convinced male bureaucrats that she was competent and mature enough to work in the U.S. Barton, born in 1821 and dying in 1912, dedicated her life tohumanitarian causes, of which the Red Cross was perhaps the single mostnoteworthy example. Illustrious Americans: Clara Barton. Other programs are a tissuesservice and the nation's first bone marrow registry, established in the mid-198 s. Modern nursing began in the mid-19th century with the advent of theNightingale training schools for nurses. She asked for food for the wounded men, or for money to buy food forthem. She gave this out to those who could accept it; she fed it to those who could not feed themselves (Whitelaw, 1997, pp. 8- 9). Another conference was held in Geneva the following year, and officialdelegates of 12 nations signed the first Geneva Convention, laying downrules for the treatment of the wounded and for the protection of medicalpersonnel and hospitals. I shall remain here while anyone remains, and do whatever comes to my hand. Under the auspices of the safetyservices program, trained instructors, most of them volunteers, teach firstaid, small-craft and water safety, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In1884 she represented the United States at the Red Cross Conference and atthe International Peace Convention in Geneva. The early history of nursing presents us with an amateur calling. Thefederation also assists victims of natural and human-made disasters. Barton's work with the Red Cross allied with Nightingale's work intraining nurses ensured that women would serve a vital function in bothcaring for men (and later women) wounded on the battlefield and in naturaldisasters and in helping to reunited families separated by both militaryand civilian horrors. 7). 98) and sought to change this situation. That year her brother David fell when he wasworking on the rafters of the barn. Appalled by the almost complete lack ofcare for wounded soldiers, he appealed to the leaders of nations to foundsocieties devoted to the aid of the wounded in wartime. Toward the end of the 18th century nursing wasconsidered an unsuitable occupation for "proper" young women, undoubtedlydue to the fact that hospitals in those days were dirty and pestilentplaces where patients usually died (Whitelaw, 1997, p. During the Crusades, for example,some military orders of knights also provided nursing care, most notablythe Knights Hospitalers. Through Barton's efforts the American Red Cross Society was formed in1881; she served as the first president of the organization until 19 4. She had become a single working woman, had taught school in Massachusetts, and had established the first public school in Bordentown, New Jersey. Barton's work during the Civil War was not only on the battlefield.She also helped raised money and public awareness when she felt that thiswould do the most good. 63). She was responsible for theintroduction at this convention of the "American amendment," whichestablished that the Red Cross was to serve victims of peacetime disastersas well as victims of war. The last work that she personally directed was therelief of victims of the flood at Galveston, Texas, in 19 before she diedin Glen Echo, Maryland, on April 12, 1912. World War II, however, brought aboutanother increased demand for nurses. Barton must have beenable to sense the way that families can be haunted by not knowing what hashappened to a loved one, or even not knowing where a soldier's body lies,and so she worked to help identify and repatriate the bodies of those whowould have otherwise spent eternity in a nameless grave. American Red Cross services are organized into several programs thatreflect the concerns of the international agency. Clara Barton: Daughter of destiny.Philadelphia: J.P. The organization owesits founding, its sense of purpose, and much of its current direction toBarton. Such an organization, Barton wrote, would allow relief goodsand workers to "be shipped intelligently and reach at once a field in needof them" (Williams, 1941, p. And perhaps Barton's most famous act of the war occurred during one ofits most infamous battles, that of Antietam, when she bent over a woundedsoldier to hive him water. Barton was certainly not the first to recognize that a war does notend at the signing of the instruments of surrender, but she was one of thefirst in American history to help provide the institutions necessary tomake the endgame of war a more humanitarian period of history for all ofthose who had been affected by a conflict, especially the civilian familymembers of soldiers who had been wounded or killed. Barton did not have to begin from the ground up with her ideas for theAmerican Red Cross, for she was able to join an international movement withthe same concerns. "If I can't be asolider, I'll help soliders" she once said, and it is hard to imagine thather work as a nurse was not greater than anything she could have done as asoldier (Williams, 1941, p. Clinicalresearch is an integral part of the service. Inthe youth involvement program, young people take responsibility in leading,planning, and carrying out Red Cross services in a community. 1 2). (1941). Indeed, one might well argue that if Barton had been allowed to becomea soldier - another way to put this argument is to say that if she had beena man - then that is the path that she would have followed, to thedetriment of history and to the squandering of her own considerable skills.It is hard to believe that she could have made such a contribution to theUnion cause to compensate for depriving the country and the world of herskills as an administrator and as a symbol of the importance of theimpartiality of compassion. After the Battle of Spottsylvania, in May 1864, andbefore Fredericksburg she began to try to better the lives of Unionsoldiers by helping to organize relief and supplies. Patent Office. She superintended reliefwork in the yellow-fever pestilence in Florida (1887); in the Johnstown,Pennsylvania, flood (1889); in the Russian famine (1891); among theArmenians (1896); in the Spanish-American War (1898); and in the SouthAfrican War (1899-19 2). She created the most nutritious meal possible with available supplies - bowls of army biscuits crushed and mixed with wine, water, and brown sugar. Born in Oxford, Massachusetts, and educated mostly athome, chiefly by her two brothers and two sisters, she became first ateacher and the founder of various free schools in New Jersey. Americans needed to create an organization that could channel mercyand generosity intelligently: This was one of the key lessons that she hadlearned from the Civil War when she so often saw soldiers needing reliefand people who would provide that relief if only they knew how. Knowing her own philosophy, it is not surprising that Barton's talentstook her on the path to organizing the American Red Cross rather thanseeing nursing as an end in itself. But never to fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them (Fishwick, 1966, p. Barton's Work as Part of the Professionalization of Nursing Barton's work can be seen to be part of the professionalization ofnursing, although her work is obviously somewhat more tangential to thiseffort than the work of someone like Florence Nightingale. Lippincott. Under its charter, the American Red Cross is required to act as amedium of communication between members of the armed forces and theirfamilies; to carry on a system of national and international relief toalleviate suffering caused by pestilence, flood, fire, and other disasters;and to devise measures for preventing such calamities. Barton's handin creating an agency with these particular goals should be clear from thisbrief overview of her life, and it should be equally clear how pleased shewould be by the results of one of her most important works. Fromthe beginnings of human history, nursing care was usually provided byvolunteers who had little or no training. Rushing from one wounded solider to another, Barton cleaned wounds, applied oils and ointments, wrapped injuries in bandages, and comforted wounded and weary men. She continued tonurse her brother for two years, and it was one of the first experiencesthat gave her confidence in her self and a possible direction for herdesire to do good (Whitelaw, 1997, p. 1 8). It was also at this meeting that the famous symbolof the movement, the white flag bearing a red cross, was adopted. Barton's personalconcerns, and her work during the Civil War which gave a shape to many ofthese concerns, is very much evident in the organization. The biography of Clara Barton (whose full name was Clarissa HarloweBarton) cannot be written without also writing in some measure the historyof the American Red Cross as well as that of the history of nursing. 99). She mightnot have been able to achieve what she did without the constantencouragement of her large family and without an incident that happenedwhen she was nine years old. He developed fevers and a headache fromthe fall and doctors prescribed the then-popular panacea of applying aleech to remove his "bad Blood". Her courageand determination to do so can perhaps best be heard in her own words onthe subject. B. In 1977 additionalprotocols were added to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to protect all non-combatants in all types of conflicts, international as well as domestic. Conclusion Clara Barton is remembered as a savior of lives during the Civil War,as a woman who would not be stopped by the biases of her time against thegood work that women can do, as someone of enormous personal courage andfortitude. A woman of valor: Clara Barton and the Civil War.New York: The Free Press. This does not mean that she was averse to doing the hard work involvedin actual nursing. Barton met doctors and surgeons who struggled to relieve pain and suffering despite insufficient bandages, medications, salves, and painkillers. She went to the next living soldier to see how she couldhelp him (Williams, 1941, p. Her impartiality during the Civil War can be seen as a clear precedentto her work with the Red Cross, which has always maintained as one of itscentral tenets the importance of treating anyone in need, regardless ofwhich flag they were fighting under. After the war shesupervised a systematic search for missing soldier and eventually receiveda Congressional appropriation to run what was known as the Missing SoldiersOffice and became the first woman to head a government bureau. (1997). Her work during the Civil War shows acombination of generalship and compassion that combines the best oftraditional, stereotypical male and female ideal traits. This programprovides counseling and in emergencies, facilitates rapid communicationsand makes available financial assistance (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 CD-ROM version, entry on American Red Cross). Since the end of WorldWar II, technological advances in medicine and health have required nursesto become knowledgeable about sophisticated equipment, to learn about anincreasing number of medications, and to design nursing care appropriatefor the health care delivery system during a period of rapid change.Barton's nursing work on the battlefield helped lay down the fundamentalsfor nursing during wartime, and the work of nurses in MASH and othermilitary units throughout the 2 th century owes much to what she saw anddid during the Civil War. Her goal was always and only to provide help forthose who needed it, without making distinctions over whether that need hadbeen generated in a way that she considered to be appropriate. She had demonstrated that a woman could function quite ably outside the home, and she saw no reason why a woman of her qualifications and attributes wouldn't make a splendid soldier (Oates, 1994, p. Her sight her 5 men beggingher for a piece of cracker or a drink of water as they lay on blood-wettedfloors in an old hotel in Fredericksburg while officers did nothing to helpalleviate their suffering caused her to alert the War Department to whatwas happening (Williams, 1941, pp. 18). Barton's work as a humanitarian was inspired at least in part by herdesire to see that women were granted their fair chance to contribute tosociety. 17). Her later success could not easily have been predicted from her earlychildhood, when she was an almost unnaturally shy child, timid and afraidof strangers and speaking with a lisp that made her even shier. She wrote about her feelings over this incident in a letter addressedto a number of members of the clergy on May 16, 1864: For the first time in the history of the war, the magnitude and intensity of suffering and want are so appalling as to wring from me a public call for aid (Williams, 1941, p. But it is also important toconsider Barton's life in the larger scheme of the history of her times.She could not have accomplished what she did had she been a lesser person.But nor could she have accomplished what she did if she had not lived in atime that was beginning to show the world the importance of internationalrelief efforts, the imperative of professionalizing nursing and the rolethat women could and must play in the public life of a democracy. Bartontracked down information on nearly 22, soldiers before the office wasclosed in 1868. [Barton] hated all restrictions on women because of their sex and thought them entitled to the same rights as men. References Encyclopedia Britannica, 1999 CD-ROM version, entry on American RedCross. Blood given by volunteers, is collected, processed, and madeavailable to physicians and hospitals for the use of patients. (1994). 98-9). She is perhapsbest known in this regard for her work in providing an AndersonvilleCemetery for the thousands of Northern soldiers who had died and were lyingin unmarked graves in Andersonville's prison camp (Fishwick, 1966, p. These are certainly all truthful descriptions of her, and noreport of her life that does not emphasize her own personal courage,integrity and vision would be fair or accurate. Over the decades the ICRC and the Federation have sent representativesand aid to many countries around the world to help detainees, prisoners ofwar, and refugees of war, political upheaval, or civil strife. A bullet tore through her sleeve and struck thesoldier, who died. The Cadet Nurse Corps, established in1943, subsidized nursing education for thousands of young people who agreedto engage in nursing for the duration of the war. The blood services program is the largest blood donor service inthe world. The disaster services program sets up disaster-preparedness plans and,when disaster occurs, provides emergency care for disaster victims andrehabilitation assistance to help individuals and families resume normalliving. She was not a Florence Nightingale,willing to subsume herself entirely in the traditional feminine skills andvirtues associated with nursing. This description of her work after the August 1862battle at Culpeper, Virgina, where Union soldiers lost a fierce battle andmany soldiers is typical of her work during the Civil War. In 1854 she became a clerk in the Patent Office, Washington, D.C., butresigned at the start of the American Civil War (1861-1865) to work as avolunteer, distributing supplies to wounded soldiers. 231). Whitelaw, N. 23 ) she realized after her experiences in theCivil War, and so Americans needed a definite and well-arrangedorganization "to accomplish perceptible good" or it would otherwise fail"as it has always failed in all similar efforts at foreign aid" (Williams,1941, p. She had rejected marriage, which she associated with death, and had turned her back on the idea of marriage and motherhood as the female ideal. Services to the armedforces and veterans help in solving personal problems.
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