Clara Barton

Born in Oxford, Massachusetts, in 1821, Clara Barton began her working life as a teacher and later worked in the U.S. Patent Office, one of the few women in the federal workforce at the time. During the Civil War, she became known for bringing supplies and nursing care directly to wounded soldiers, earning the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield.”

After the war, Barton learned more about the Red Cross movement in Europe and pushed to create an American branch. In 1881, she helped found the American Red Cross and served as its first president, guiding its early work in wartime aid and disaster relief.

Her long public life made her one of the best-known humanitarian figures of her era. She died in 1912, but her legacy lives on in the relief work, nursing history, and public service she helped inspire.