Clarissa Harlowe Barton

Clarissa Harlowe 'Clara' Barton was born in North Oxford, Massachusetts. Beginning her career as a schoolteacher, she founded one of New Jersey's first free public schools in Bordentown. When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Barton recognized that the greatest suffering on the battlefield was caused by a catastrophic lack of immediate medical supplies. Refusing to stay behind the lines, she obtained permission to travel directly to front-line battlefields, including Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the Wilderness.

Known affectionately by soldiers as the 'Angel of the Battlefield', Barton nursed wounded men amidst flying artillery shells, organized wagon trains of emergency medical food and bandages, and set up field hospitals. Following the war, with the authorization of President Abraham Lincoln, Barton established the Missing Soldiers Office in Washington, D.C., successfully locating the graves or fates of more than 22,000 missing Union soldiers.

Traveling to Europe in 1869, Barton was introduced to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Geneva Convention. Returning to the United States, she campaigned relentlessly for American ratification of the Geneva Treaty. In 1881, she founded the American Red Cross and authored the 'American Amendment', which mandated that the Red Cross provide relief not only during war but also during peacetime natural disasters like floods, famines, and earthquakes.